I'm back. Sorry for the late update. But here's Chapter 2
All his life Jason had been nagged to become a medic.
His mother had never agreed to Jason's stepmother's dreams of him becoming a great hero like the Graces in the past and she always wanted someone with medical knowledge in the house so whenever she'd had seizures or urges, there would've been someone there to diagnose her and help her. Jason never agreed with her, though. He'd always outright refused, his dreams of being a pilot or a Half-blood fighter too strong for him to give up.
He now so desperately wished he'd agreed with her.
Piper was trembling all over, bent over her broken hands, her face twisting in agony and Jason couldn't stand it. He wanted so badly to help her, to maybe fix her, but he knew nothing about medicine.
They slipped into a secret, dimly lit hallway that was entirely secluded and actually a corridor of pipes and wires that the mechanics and workers went through to fix any faults. It was a dangerous corridor, especially for Jason with his thigh wound and with that, a limp, but far less than the hallways where the enemy were. By the looks of the footprints on the floor, he assumed people had already used it to get safely inside and he was glad. There were very few people from the ship out there with the enemy, meaning most of them got back safely.
He sighed guiltily. The ones that were out there weren't going to make it and Jason had left them all. He'd fought as many as he could but not enough. They kept coming, hurting and killing and he wasn't enough to help them. He needed to get Piper to the infirmary where she could get her hands sorted and wouldn't leave her to go alone.
They moved forward, making their way to the gates to the North Wing. They both stayed quiet, side-by-side, their thoughts a world in their heads, the silence between them a tether.
Broken by the thud of Piper's legs tripping over a loose pipe jutting from the wall. Jason righted her, grabbing her by the waist and she looked at him gratefully. There was no way she could do it herself with the state her hands were in. A clink followed the thud of her trip and they both looked down at the ring bouncing onto the floor, rolling away.
Jason bent down to retrieve it, flinching at the spike of pain shooting from his thigh, his fingers closing over the silver band, a small simple diamond in the middle. A ghost of a smile lifted his face and he rose, turning to slide it back on her finger when he flinched at the sight. There was no way he was touching her hand. Knowing himself, he would accidentally break it further and he was not going to risk it. She already said yes when he proposed, she didn't have to have it on display to keep proving it. So he slipped it into the pocket of his mission suit and moved to continue forward.
"Your leg?" Piper's voice had him pause. She bent to examine the wound. "Are you all right?"
He shrugged. "It isn't that deep, it'll heal quickly." He held her elbows and gently stood her straight. That got her eyes straying to the slash at the side of his neck.
He met her concerned gaze with a huff and a glance to her bad hands and she rolled her eyes in return.
They silently treaded past multiple doors that were like bumps in the walls of the hallway, reading each number, concluding it wasn't their destination, and continuing forward. Jason had momentarily paused before a specific door that Piper nudged him to ignore. Door 010—EX. A forgotten area of the ship where no one ventured. It was one of the only areas of the ancient ship that hadn't been renovated like the rest of the sleek and shiny hallways and command rooms. A perfect place to hide something.
Jason hoped Piper didn't notice his lingering gaze on the door. He needed to check through there soon—without her knowing. Because no one knew. It was a secret between him and the admiral. A prisoner they kept hostage from the enemy ship Atlas that was the source of their information. Prisoner X was what both of them called her. Or him. Jason could never tell. Mostly due to the fact that the prisoner wore a new face each time he visited them. The faces weren't random faces either. They completely unsettled him. The prisoner would wear his mother's face, his sister's face, his friends' faces and sometimes even Piper's. Their conversations would be short and sharp and so would his patience and he would always dread going through that door down the hallways and meeting X.
It was a few more minutes before they reached the gate to the North Wing that was currently bolted shut. He and Piper moved to the gap on the right where the gate ended and the wall continued. He pressed his hand against it, sliding it around before he came across a circular indent. He pressed his thumb within the indent and the wall beeped. A rectangular part of the wall slid open, revealing the North Wing, and Jason gently prodded Piper in before getting in himself, sliding the door back shut behind him.
The whole Wing had become an infirmary, rows upon rows of makeshift beds filling the entirety of the floor, medics tending to all the injured soldiers. The sounds of bandages unwrapping, medics speaking gently with their patients and the overall chatter of the area wove into a constant hum that was so different to the silent emptiness that the West Wing was.
Jason quickly walked Piper to a familiar face as soon as he spotted him.
"Will," Jason called and Will turned around, a relieved smile on his face when he saw that they were okay that melted into a concerned widening of the eyes when he caught sight of Piper's mutilated hands.
He strode quickly to them, grabbing a cloth on the way. "What happened?" He asked, his voice low as he gently took her hands and placed them in the cloth he brought.
Piper's brow furrowed and she moved her eyes from her hands in Will's to look at him. "Sorry?" She panted as he accidentally held a wrong finger.
Will winced. "Sorry." He replied. "I was asking how this happened."
"Bullet." Piper replied, visibly suppressing a gasp of pain.
"I'll help her," Will reassured him, "You get yourself tended."
He nodded and limped to the closest free medic. She asked few questions as she extracted the bullet—Jason grunted in pain—and cleaned the wound. His mind was on Prisoner X. What if X had something to do with the satellite attacks? Piper had informed him about the satellite attacks that the admiral warned her about and from what he calculated the attacks were before they were caught and chased down by the enemy. Perhaps during an interrogation he might've slipped the mission with Squad 107 and X contacted Atlas and informed them of that. He wasn't one to brag but he knew, as everyone did, that Squad 107—Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Piper and himself—were one of the strongest Squads in Half-Blood Forces. It was only this mission that Nyssa replaced Piper but even then with one of the best forces out of the ship, it was a great opportunity to attack.
But how did they know to use that opportunity?
He thanked the medic, grabbed a wipe to clean the blood off his neck, and approached Piper, Will carefully tending to her hands, his eyes concentrated.
"I have to go," He said to her. "The ship—"
Piper nodded, her eyes with the same worry as his of the people left outside. "Go," she said. "I'll be fine here."
Jason nodded, leaning forward to press a kiss on her forehead. "You better be." He poked her cheek before turning around and heading to the exit.
He spared a last look back at her—she lifted her hand to wave, flinched, and thought better of it—before slipping out the door and pounding down the corridor. What she didn't know was that the worry in his eyes wasn't only because of the people left out. But of the single person tucked away behind Door 010—EX. He needed to find out what X planned to do.
He stopped at the door that led him back to the actual hallways, his gun out, pressing himself against the wall as he slowly slid out and jumped out, gun brandished.
There was no one there. Jason frowned, straightening, his head swivelling about. How? The place was swarming with soldiers not too long ago. How is there no one there? Where did they all go?
He jogged down the hallway, his eyes on the floor. Most of the bodies on the floor were the young cadets and most were just knocked out. The ones that weren't—Jason shook his head. He wasn't going to allow himself to dwell on that. All he needed to think was that there were more of the enemy out there and more soldiers he needed to help protect. But where was the enemy? Where did they slip out and how?
Jason shook his head and continued forward, freezing when the pounding of footsteps reached his ears. He practically melted into the walls and moved slowly, slowing more at the T the hallways formed, his gun drawn out. The footsteps became louder and louder and Jason knew whoever the person was, they would be passing the junction he was at. He stayed perfectly still and allowed the person to come closer, closer, the pounding now echoing through the hall when he shot his leg out.
Slam.
Their face met the floor in a not so affectionate embrace, their feet tangling with Jason's stray one and Jason clicked his gun in emphasis. The form stiffened and Jason frowned when he got a closer look at it.
Another set of footsteps sounded to his right. "Percy, I told you to wait—Jason?"
Jason straightened. "Annabeth." He tucked his gun into the holster at his hip. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at her. "You guys are okay."
"I'm not." A muffled voice replied and Jason chuckled, leaning down to help Percy up. Percy rubbed his forehead, a glare sent Jason's way. "Could you not look before you trip?"
"Could you not be subtle about your expeditions through the ship?" Jason replied. "Goodness you were so damn loud, you would've been dead in a second."
"But there's no one here." Percy scratched his head, frowning at the entirety of the ship.
"Which is really odd." Annabeth sighed. "What were they here for? I mean, why did they come and leave so quickly? And how?"
Her questions echoed all of Jason's worries.
"Maybe they've been gathered somewhere." Percy said.
"How have we not noticed then?" Jason asked.
"I don't know." Annabeth shook her head. She brushed back some stray hairs that escaped her ponytail. "We need to find the Admiral, though."
A crackling in his earpiece interrupted his reply and he frowned, cocking his head, catching the other two doing the same. "This is your Admiral speaking. All able soldiers report to the Centre Sector immediately. Take any other able soldiers with you and take the injured to the infirmary on your way. I repeat, all able soldiers report to the Centre Sector immediately. Any other able soldiers will be coming with you and the injured must be taken to the infirmary."
The three of them looked helplessly at the litter of bodies surrounding them.
"It's going to take hours to see who's alive and able and who isn't." Jason said.
Percy sighed. "Then we better get to it quickly."
"They're technically all injured, though." Annabeth pointed out. "And we can't force unconscious people awake so why don't we take everyone to the infirmary?"
Jason and Percy exchanged appreciative glances. "I don't know whether to feel stupid or appreciate your thinking."
Annabeth didn't reply, adjusting her ear piece, her gaze focused, before her eyes cleared when she found the right frequency and she strode down the hallway. "Yes, Will." She said. "I'm going to need a small unit of soldiers to carry the wounded and unconscious to the infirmary…" Her voice became more distant and she continued her pacing. "Yes, we're in hallway 3A—W. The bodies are quite spread across…"
Jason and Percy just stood there, silently waiting. Percy glanced up at Jason.
"Where's Piper?" He asked. "I saw you two running from the East Wing exit but I didn't see her anywhere again."
Jason closed his eyes briefly. "She's in the infirmary. Will's tending to her."
"What happened?" Percy's brow furrowed in concern.
"Bullet wound. In her hands. She's missing two fingers." He said them shortly, not having the will or strength to say it all together.
Percy's eyes bugged out all the same. "What!" He exclaimed. "Is she all right?"
Jason nodded slowly. "At least I hope she'll be." He said quietly. "Losing fingers…especially here working in Half-Blood." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "She's not going to take it well."
Percy shook his head.
"Guys," Annabeth reappeared from around the corner. "Will's men are coming here to…clean the mess." She checked her watch. "The admiral just told me we were to be there in two minutes so come on."
A crackling filled Jason's right ear once more. "Jason," he heard the admiral's voice. "Go to X and deal with him." Or her. The pronouns kept changing.
Jason nodded and stopped Percy and Annabeth. "I'm not coming." He told them. "I'll be there in a while, okay?"
Annabeth frowned and her mouth opened but before a question spilled out, Percy placed his hand on her elbow, gesturing to go, and she nodded, gave Jason a wave and left.
Jason sighed. On to his least favourite part of the week.
"You came!" X cried in delight in his space in the corner. "I was getting a little worried that you died with all the commotion I've heard happening."
Jason closed the door behind him. "Still breathing." He said.
"Surprisingly." He replied. He because—Jason turned around to lean against the wall and stopped short—it was Nico's face he had to face today.
His fists slowly clenched, his teeth grit.
X paused at Jason's anguished face. He mock-frowned, looking himself over. "Did I not do it right?" He muttered, his hands patting his faded aviator jacket.
Nico—who Jason didn't know was alive or dead after his disappearance after Bianca's death a year ago. Or at least Jason hoped was just her death. Any alternative in her situation was worse. She was claimed by Kronos's second-in-command, the promise-maker, they called him. He made a promise to take a specific person every month and that same night they would disappear and no matter what they did, they could never save the people chosen. After Bianca's name was called and she disappeared, Nico did everything to bring her back before failing and fleeing. And no one had seen him since.
How Prisoner X knew of him was beyond Jason. But he'd learned not to ask. He merely composed his features and eyed X with a stony expression. "So," he crossed his arms. "Is it telepathy?"
Nico's face rippled as X paused in confusion. "Sorry?"
"I check you over every week to make sure you're not armed in any way and I'm sure you have no communicating device." Jason narrowed his eyes. "So what I want to ask is how you're communicating with Atlas."
X rolled his eyes. "I'm not." He said. "I'm not the reason they came here."
"Then why did they?" Jason inquired. Other than me practically leading them here.
"Well, I wouldn't know since I'm practically stuck here with you." X looked at him pointedly, his chin jutting out.
There was always something familiar in X's mannerisms, a familiarity Jason couldn't quite place. Talking to X felt so normal, the way X acted and his mannerisms and movements like a code already downloaded into Jason's brain.
"Well," Jason ran a hand through his hair, pausing when he caught X's eyes lingering on the movement. "I was…thinking maybe they came here for a rescue mission."
X smirked. "Afraid you're going to lose me?" He teased.
"Afraid they're going to do more damage than necessary." The image of Piper's hands flew into his head and he supressed a wince.
X propped his chin on his palm, watching Jason carefully. "What type of damage?"
Jason didn't reply, pushing off the wall. "Well, you seem to be utterly useless to me right now." He said as he made his way to the door. "So I'm—"
A light blinded him and Jason stumbled back, startled. He lifted his right hand where the light emanated—his touchstrap. An image hovered above the screen of the touchstrap and Jason frowned, pressing a finger to the screen and aiming his hand to the wall before him.
The image jumped and latched onto the wall, Jason's hand a sort of projector now. His heart stopped when he caught sight of the masked face of the promise-maker.
He heard X gasp behind him but he didn't have the strength to switch the projector off. It was time. A month had gone past and it was time for the next name he would call.
"Greetings Half-blood forces." The promise-maker grinned. "Have you been anticipating my visit as much as I have?"
Jason stood very still, his face tense and stony.
"Okay, let me just cut to the chase." He said. "My forces have infiltrated your ship and are lurking in the very cracks and corners. I must commend Squad 107 for their tremendous efforts. Not only did they dismantle most of our ship but they also led us to another ship we can use instead. My deepest gratitude to all of you."
Jason cursed, clenching his fists.
"Now," he continued. "To my favourite part of my visits."
Jason held his breath.
"My forces have scoured this ship and taken a good look at each and every one of you, making my job much much easier." He hummed. "And I do have to thank them as they found quite a catch for me to take."
His eyes seemed to be burning into Jason as if he could see him and a malicious grin split his face.
"Piper Mclean."