Chapter six: In Itinere Persevero

Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. No matter how much I wish to be (I'm looking at you right now Santa.)

Author's Note – I really wasn't in the mood to write a happy kind of chapter coz honestly, the world sucks sometimes. Still, rather than writing a gloomy, sad and depressing chapter, I decided to give Festus a shot anyway. After all, when life gives you lemons, you make orange juice and confuse the shit out of life.

"Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day."

Piper's POV:

I did not want to use the knife, but sitting in the Roman, Jason's cabin, alone, she felt helpless. She had seen how heartbroken Percy had been about Annabeth. And he had still agreed to go on a mission with her. Hazel and Leo were looking for Celestial bronze while Frank was guarding the ship.

She had seen Percy, Annabeth and Leo in action before, knew how dangerous they were. And the way Jason exuded power, he did not seem to be the kind of guy who was useless in a fight. Frank's shapeshifting was…scary to say the least and Hazel had bested Arion himself, the legendary horse who ran faster than the speed of sound.

All the while a voice spoke in her head, "Look at them, and look at you. You're a daughter of Aphrodite, with no skill at wielding a blade or fighting monsters. The only reason you are on this quest is because of the prophecy." She felt inadequate, a joke compared to the rest of them, or an afterthought.

So, she thought maybe looking into Katoptris would show her a vision of where to go next and what to do. The dagger itself wasn't special, an isosceles triangle for a blade and a simple, unadorned handle, most people would dismiss it as a ceremonial blade, a parazonium knife.

But this specific knife had belonged to Helen of Troy and it showed visions of the future. Its name meant "looking glass". Some of the visions it showed were truly disturbing, Octavian sowing dissent into the Roman camp, Reyna trying to control the mob who were determined to hunt down the Graecus scum who had taken their centurion Frank and both of their praetors – Hazel and Jason, even though Hazel had only been interim praetor. Octavian kept reminding the Romans that Reyna had spent a long time with the Greeks and therefore, wasn't to be trusted.

Then it had shown Percy, Jason and herself in a circular room with niches carved into the wall. The niches were glowing and a black liquid, almost like water filled the room. As she watched, Percy was pulled under, surfacing almost two minutes later, gasping for breath and shaking slightly. She frowned, could the son of Poseidon even drown?

She closed her eyes and murmured "Please, show me something helpful." The surface of the knife rippled, as light bounced off of it and she could see a mileage marker – Topeka 32, and a man wearing a purple camp shirt and khaki shorts, his face hidden under a hat, offering her a chalice filled with something.

She put the knife away and looked at Jason. His straw blonde hair, and lithe body, corded with muscle and his electric blue eyes were entrancing. As the daughter of the love goddess, she couldn't help but admire his features.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and the aforementioned gaze captured her own. "Hey" he said, throat parched from disuse. "How are you feeling?" she asked him. She knew he was no longer with Reyna as she had unintentionally eavesdropped on the two of them talking together.

And even though in the months Reyna had been at camp, she and Piper had developed a respect, if not friendship for each other, she couldn't help but be glad that Jason was no longer with her.

She helped him sit up and gave him some nectar to sip on and a bite of ambrosia, her hand lingering for a breadth more than required as she passed it to him.

Then, she heard someone clear their throat behind her, only to see a grinning Percy and a smiling Annabeth. They were both covered in black, smelly looking stuff, and Percy had a small cut on his forehead.

"Roofing tar?" she asked.

"Yup" Percy said, popping the p. "I'm going to take this to the main deck and clean up afterwards" he said before taking off.

"What's got him so cheerful?" I asked. After finding out Annabeth had lost her memories of him, he had hardly laughed or smiled the way he used to.

"About that" Annabeth said. "I'll shower and change and then maybe we can talk...?" she asked.

"Yeah sure." I replied, wondering what Annabeth wanted to talk about.

Annabeth's POV:

I couldn't help but notice that some of the things I had said to Percy were making him look at me weird. His eyes, previously betraying no emotion apart from sheer determination now had an inkling of…was that hope?

I did not know why, but he looked at me expectantly, as if any second, I would remember everything, and all would be right again. I hated the feeling that he expected me to remember everything, I hated the way Leo kept bringing his name up when we made a round of the ship every day to ensure its smooth functioning.

What I hated most of all though, was the feeling that as soon as I would tell Percy I still remembered nothing, his face would crumple back into disappointment and sorrow, and his eyes would lose that fledgling hope.

So, like any other teen, I procrastinated. After the battle was over, I asked to return as soon as possible under the pretence of needing a shower, which I did. Now, back on the ship, me and Percy watched as Piper and Jason talked to each other, and judging by the way Percy was grinning, neither one of us had missed the obvious chemistry between the two of them.

Finally, not wanting Piper to embarrass herself further, I lightly cleared my throat. She immediately turned around, her eyes wide, hand clenching Katoptris.

After Percy had gone, still under the impression that I was starting to remember, I had asked Piper for some time as she would obviously know more about this than I did.

She readily agreed and twenty minutes later, we were both in her room, sitting on her bunk, the eagle feather she kept on the desk in my hand.

"So…Jason seems like a cool guy" I said nonchalantly.

Her cheeks coloured and she said "I was just helping him out. Head injuries can be pretty nasty."

"Sure, sure" I said. "And the fact that you were staring at each other was because you were checking him for damage I suppose"

"Oh come on Annabeth! Stop teasing me." She huffed.

"I'm not teasing you" I said, and smirked.

"Then what do you call this?" she asked.

"Oh nothing. It was just an interesting observation, you know, in an observationally interesting kinda way." I replied.

She changed tactics and asked "So, what did you want to talk about?"

The mirth disappeared from my face as I recounted our conversation and the subsequent battle, telling Piper about how worried I had been when Percy had gone limp and started talking to Gaia who had somehow infiltrated his mind.

She just listened to me, her heterochromatic eyes never leaving my face. When I finished, she sighed before saying "Annabeth, I know you don't remember this, but I can't blame Percy for feeling as if your memories are returning."

"Only you call him Seaweed Brain, its been your thing for as long as I can remember, and what you said about never making things easy for him, well, those were the exact same words you said when he first got the nerve to ask you out. On his birthday no less, right after Kronos had been defeated." She explained.

"Oh" was all I said, all I could say. In that moment, I wished desperately that someone would restore my memories of him. Just so that I did not have to disappoint him.

Then I felt angry at myself for thinking that, Percy was just my teammate, and a friend. I did not owe him for anything. Then why did the thought of letting him down fill me with dread?

"Just….don't talk to Percy about this." Piper said. "Maybe your memories will return on their own soon." She added, but I knew that her belief in that statement was half-hearted at best.

"Okay, thanks Piper." I said, feeling better just by talking about it.

She nodded once before giving me a thumbs up.

I couldn't help but add "Say hi to Jason for me." before ducking out of her room, dodging the pillow she had thrown at my face.

I decided to think about it later, focusing my mind on the much more present issue of fixing the ship as Leo needed my help.

Some time later, after the ship was fixed and everyone was gathered, we realised that we were at a loss for where to go next.

Jason had been told about our escapades and we could tell he was grouchy about missing out on all the fun stuff. We were still discussing our next move when Piper spoke up – "how do you all feel about Kansas?" and proceeded to tell us about the vision she had seen.

Jason looked at Piper with newfound respect as he knew that not everyone could wield Katoptris before going mad, let alone have such accurate visions. While he studied her, she was completely oblivious to his attention and continued with telling us about the man and the strange chalice.

Since we had nothing better to do anyway, we agreed to go to the mileage marker and got up to leave. As I was going, I heard Percy mutter to Piper "For the daughter of a love goddess, you are surprisingly dense." Before walking off, a smile on his face.

I sniggered to myself, thinking about how funny Percy was. I had to admit to myself that even though I did not remember anything about him, he had a lot of lovable traits.

And I could not help but think that maybe, even with my memories gone, I could fall into love with him all over again.

Author's Note: Well, sorry if you feel this one is a bit of a filler, I liked writing this chapter, even though things have been a little sucky at home. In case you haven't noticed, I am including a little bit of Jiper as well to freshen up the story. I like the banter between these characters and hope you all do too. Anyway, the much-awaited Jason x Percy battle is about to come in the next few chapters, minus the Eidolons. Overall, please read, review and spread this story. It would mean a lot!

P.S. – Just in case….REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!