Author's Note:

Back from the cliffhanger, ey? Well, I wouldn't make you dawdle with a long A/N, here you are, chapter eighteen.

Also, some language in this chapter, if that's a squick for you

Cheers!

justapercyjacksonfan

Chapter 18:

Now was her chance to prove themself as better than the others. Now they were rid of Jess' stupid intuition in fights. Now they were rid of Ian 'magic ex machina' Malark and they could take this thing down on their own, like they should.

They yelled, and summoned rain, dousing the cyclops before calling down lightning. It was a thousand times more effective with the monster covered in water, and while it was struggling to overcome the electricity coursing through its body, they ran at it, slashing at the beast with their sword. It sat down hard.

As they began to stab at it, they realized there were no more arrows raining down on the thing, and saw that Jo was running out the building she had been shooting from.

And where was Caleb? Oh. Making sure Jess and Ian were okay. Fine by them. They wanted this to be their victory alone.

They stabbed at it one more time. It grunted in pain. Bri nodded satisfied. They had killed a giant cyclops all on their own. They were so much more powerful than the rest, and now, if anyone questioned them, they needed only to point to this victory.

And then something slammed into them.

It took several moments for it to register in Bri's head that the cyclopes hadn't begun to dissolve into sand yet. They had walked away too soon, so the thing that sent them flying was….it was the monster's hand, slapping at them. And try as they did, they couldn't stand back up. Bri hissed in pain. Yeah, their left leg was definitely broken, maybe the right one two. The cyclops was lumbering toward them, and they couldn't do anything about it.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. They'd heard from other demi's that their near death experiences had often seemed to slow down as they took in what they thought would be their final sights and sounds. This was no different, except Bri was pretty sure this was their last moment. Not a near death experience, just her dying moment. No do overs. Vaguely, a memory came to them of the story of another child of Zeus, who had been turned into a tree just before she died. A story Percy and Miss Annabeth had told her, but they couldn't remember her name. Maybe their dad would do the same for her.

They didn't want to close their eyes, but they did. Bri tensed, waiting for the strike to come.

Instead, all they felt was dust settling on them. Slowly opening their eyes, they saw Jess breathing heavily, her knives in her hands surrounded by a pile of monster dust. The wind and momentum of the monster accounted for the sand colored powder all over Bri.

They watched, cringing in horror at the idea that they were both still alive and now indebted to the daughter of Nemesis. And Nemesis hated unbalanced scales. Likely, her daughter would be expecting something in return.

Jess caught her breath, before throwing her knives down. They stood shivering in the dirt, barely missing the hydrangea in the bus terminal's landscaping. She marched over, and grabbed them by the shirt, pulling them up off the ground, and onto their injured legs. If it weren't for the gruff grip she had on their shirt, Bri would have certainly fallen over from the pain. As it was she made a very weak whimpering sound.

"OH, DOES THAT HURT? Jess asked, furious. "CAN'T BE ANY WORSE THAN FALLING FIFTEEN FUCKING FEET OUT OF THE AIR!" she shook Bri, no care given to the injured half-blood.

Removing one arm from the child of Zeus, Jess stuck a hand in her pocket, and brought out a pre-packaged, and very squished square of ambrosia.

Hands shaking, Bri accepted it, and ate the food of the gods. It filled them with the taste of Sally's blue chocolate chip cookies. Sally had always been good to them. She had treated Bri as a second grandchild. It had been years since they'd had one of those cookies, not since - they bit back the thought. A single tear slid down their face.

They refocused on the demi-god just in front of them, the face livid with emotion. "I want you to get back on your own damn feet." Jess breathed in cold anger. "So I can slam the shit out of you, you hear?"

She dropped Bri, who shrieked in pain. Their legs were mending, yes, but ambrosia wasn't going to heal a broken bone in seconds. It was going to be at least a day before they were fully mended, probably more.

Jo made her way over to Bri as Jess turned her back on them. Jo's lips were pursed. Anger radiated off of her, but she seemed less likely to punch them.

Without saying anything, Jo pulled some gauze out of her pack, as well as some sort of stick, no longer than a popsicle stick, but rather wide. She silently unfolded it, until it was as long as their leg, and used it to splint Bri's left leg.

"I only have one of these." she finally said. "So I can't do anything about the right leg. Sara Lee told me they were specially made by the Hephaestus cabin for demigods on quests, so it should be able to immobilize it well enough."

She glared down at the injured teen, and continued coldly, "That is, if you don't plan on sabotaging the rest of the team so you can take down a monster. When I say immobilize, I mean no more fighting until it's healed. Can your stupid pride take that, or do I need to get my brother to pound it into your head?"

Bri nodded, but didn't bother replying. They could understand why the rest of the team was so angry at them.

But that didn't mean that they thought themself in the wrong.

They craned their neck over to see Ian and Caleb. Caleb looked like he was apologizing to Ian about his magic freezing him. Ian said something accompanied by a, "It wasn't your fault" kind of gesture, before vaguely pointing towards Bri. That must have been what Jo had run down for. To unfreeze Ian.

Jo gave them some water and some mortal medicine to reduce the pain. They had a swallow of nectar, and despite how feverish they started to get from consuming more god-food, the combination of things seemed to lower the pain level.

After removing the sword from their waist, Bri was able to stand. Of course they were in maximal pain, and using their sword as a cane. Jo had wanted to find some good sticks to use for crutches, but given the only tree anywhere near was a little sapling that was part of the landscaping, it didn't seem likely.

The other three marched over to Jo and Bri.

"You can stand?" Caleb asked without concern. "Good. We managed to get tickets to a bus out of here."

He moved on, flashing his ticket, and hopping on the bus. Jo hesitated a moment, then took her ticket from Ian and followed her brother.

Ian gave them a look before pressing the ticket into their free hand. "What goes on in your head," he asked, "that makes you do things like that?"

Then he turned on his heel, and went after the Lynks.

Jess, recognizing she was the only one left with the invalid, knew she would have to make sure Bri got on the bus.

She grabbed Bri's free arm. "C'mon you little shit. You're lucky there's a prophecy keeping me from leaving you right here."

And with a sweet smile to the ticket inspector, she dragged the blonde girl toward their transportation south.

Author's Note:

Who's your favorite character out of the five man band? I obviously don't have favorites (yes I do) but I'm curious about your opinions.

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate that Bri's first reaction to having her life saved is, "What am I gonna owe this person?" Let's move on now.

Sorry Bri, but you are acting like a little shit. You should talk to your creator, maybe ask for some character development or something. Oh wait that's me! Hahahahahahahanotyet.

Lastly, thank you so much for reading, and don't forget to leave a review! We're so close to the Part 1 Finale, I'm really excited.

No new reviews, follows or favorites this week, hoping to talk to y'all next week.

Have a lovely day!

justapercyjacksonfan