AN:

Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter. I'm happy to say that I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, because that usually translates into better work. Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun with this second story. I realize that It's not getting the same response that my first story did, but I'm honestly okay with that. I really enjoy the writing process, and whether my work is enjoyed by hundreds or just a handful, I'm glad I share that connection with my readers. You guys are awesome. As always, thanks for all the support from all of you that continue to enjoy what I'm creating. Enough with the sappy shit, here's chapter 3 of "All That's Left"

XxXxX

Hard knuckles thumping against the wooden door drew her attention. Three taps and a pause, then one and another pause, followed by two more knocks. A special pattern. Soft steps trailed across the carpet, carrying her to the entryway. She peeled open the door, unsurprisingly greeted by the now familiar frame of one Percy Jackson. He was smiling, but his eyes weren't in it. Something was bothering him. She could tell as much by reading his face by now.

"What's up? I thought training didn't start for," she checked the time on her phone just to be safe. "Another hour or so?"

"Training is cancelled today. We have bigger fish to fry." He said, taking off at a brisk walk without warning. He had a habit of doing that. She assumed it was a side effect from all his time not having to worry if anyone was keeping up with him.

Hazel scrambled to catch up, nearly forgetting to shut the door to her room behind her. Part of her was glad they'd had extra space for her to stay in the base, since it made staying involved easier, but the other part of her regretted it. It gave Percy far too much power to interrupt her day at a moment's notice, just like he was doing now.

"So, about these bigger fish?" she asked, finally falling into stride with him.

"Good news. That data we recovered? Annabeth is finally done cracking through it."

Hazel felt her breath hitch for a second. They'd been waiting for weeks now for Annabeth to crack the encryption. Apparently, the thug's cyber security was better than she thought, because as soon as she'd hit download all the data had locked itself up tighter than Fort Knox. According to the blonde hacker, the code to keep her locked out for so long wasn't even in the public domain.

It had been agony waiting for the information to get back to them. A lot of Percy had started to rub off on Hazel, and one of his most prevalent traits was impatience. The more restless Percy got sitting on his hands, the more Hazel had been itching to finally learn what they'd truly found. It was a constant feedback loop as the two stewed over what they'd retrieved.

"What'd she find?" Hazel said, not even trying to hide her excitement. She knew he was equally giddy about the prospect of finally seeing the contents of what they'd discovered. All they knew right now? It was big.

"I don't know." He admitted. "That's what we're about to find out."

He pulled a door open for her, drawing the world back into focus. She realized then where they'd gone to as they conversed. It was Jason's office, a place that had grown fairly familiar to her now. Working with Percy had that effect. You may get the job done, but you're going to take a lot of trips to the principal's office too. It was just in his nature.

"Percy, Hazel. You're here. Good." Jason said from behind his desk, dark rings prevalent under his eyes.

"Finally." Annabeth muttered from her spot across from him.

Percy rolled his eyes. Hazel was a little peeved by the comment as well, although she'd never voice it. Annabeth had taken weeks to get the information and waiting for that was fine and dandy, but now that her and Percy were a few minutes late for the briefing every second counted? It was rather hypocritical. Hazel decided to attribute it to the attitude Annabeth always got when dealing with Percy. The tension between the two was palpable at the best of times.

"Yeah, we're the ones who took three weeks to figure out the evil gang's password was one-two-three-four." Percy teased, his eyes glimmering with mischief.

Annabeth's grey eyes narrowed with fury. Hazel sighed, already resigned to what was coming. It was a familiar song and dance by now. She'd seen it more times than she could count in her time with Percy. He enjoyed riling Annabeth up, and Annabeth was always too proud to ignore the obvious bait. No one really knew what the deal was with the pair. According to some, they used to date, and the bickering was a result of bitterness from their tarnished past, but others said they were simply two people who were too different to get along. Personally, Hazel thought both rumors held some truth and some falsehoods. One of the most important things she'd learned recently is that things weren't as black and white as she once thought.

"I'll have you know that password was far from that. It was the strongest cyber wall I've ever had to bypass, and second place isn't even close. I don't even know where they got their hands on it. It would have to have come from some serious geniuses. Something you're not even close to, so don't try to argue with me about how long it took to-"

"Enough." Jason interrupted, cutting off Percy's retort. "There will be plenty of time for bickering later. We've got things to worry about in the meantime. For starters, how they got their hands on such a powerful encryption."

Annabeth took a deep breath to calm herself, managing to shove aside her pride. Percy seemed significantly less upset, instead opting to put on a childish pout to chide Jason for ruining his fun. Hazel bit her lip to hold back a chuckle at that. If Percy was nothing else, he was amusing.

"Right. The tech. I doubt anyone except maybe the chief engineers at Pulchritude Corp. or Hephaestus Inc. could throw something like this together. It's incredibly sophisticated, even by their standards." Annabeth explained. Jason nodded in agreement.

"Which begs the question; why haven't we heard of a break in? It should've been the darling of every news outlet in America. There's no way a company would keep the loss of something like this so hush hush. It's a serious piece of hardware and they're just pretending it was never taken?" Jason wondered aloud.

"I uh… I think I'd have an idea why." Hazel said, her voice soft and shy. She was still trying to get a hang of the whole talking to people who weren't her mom or Percy thing. She was more of a sit and observe person at these meetings.

"Go on, Hazel." Percy goaded with an encouraging smile, noticing her hesitation. She shot him a grateful grin in return.

"I'm just speculating, but, well, I got the same idea when Percy first told me about Piper's cybernetic enhancement. It's non-combat related right?" everyone nodded in agreement. "Well as far as the public and the government know, cybernetic enhancements are only supposed to be combat related, and only soldiers are supposed to get them, but that's obviously not the truth. Piper's living proof of that."

"Sure, I guess in theory, but Piper's cybernetic enhancement was designed by Leo. Jason is one of the only cybernetics we have who was government mandated. No tech company made Piper's." Annabeth put in, wondering where Hazel was going with this.

Hazel felt Percy shuffle uncomfortably next to her, but she wasn't completely sure why. It was something to do with cybernetics, he always got a bit shifty when those were brought up, but he'd neglected to share the information with her. Another list of curiosities about the stranger she now called a close friend.

Around her, she saw that everyone was staring expectantly at her. A blush crept up her cheeks as she realized she'd gone silent, pondering the inner machinations of her mentor's mind. Her throat was running dry, and her mouth felt like cotton, but she pressed on as for one of the first times in her life, she was desperate to have her words heard.

"I know that, but it still got me thinking. What if these big companies aren't sticking to the government mandates? What if they are creating illegal cybernetics, the same as Leo? Not Piper's obviously, but someone's. What if they are creating nearly uncrackable encryptions? Or they have some other secret projects? If they're doing all that, they wouldn't want the public to know. The last thing they would do is report something like this stolen. The loss wouldn't be worth exposing their secret work, would it?"

Around the table, her three seniors nodded, considering the idea. There was no outright rejection, which was good, and they even seemed to be impressed by the logic.

"That idea has merit." Jason conceded. "Annabeth, after we're done here, your new priority is investigating discreetly any secret projects these huge tech conglomerates are hiding. I want to know what could be taken next, before it's used against us."

Annabeth nodded in affirmation. To Hazel's right, Percy gave her a not so subtle thumbs up, beaming proudly at her. She felt a little pride in herself swell up in her chest that Jason was taking her theory so seriously.

"Next order of business." Jason continued, folding his hands on the smooth desktop. "The files. What did we find?" He looked pointedly at Annabeth.

"Right, the files." Annabeth cleared her throat. "After starting to sift through them, there was just so much to discover, I'm not sure it will ever end. It's a bottomless supply of names, paper trails, and random articles. But I did get one thing already. Something big."

The three of them around her perked up in their chairs. No one dared to breath. This was what they'd been waiting for. Something that could change everything. Annabeth let out a shuddering breath.

"I have a location on Nakumara. And I have it tonight."

XxXxX

The cold rungs of the ladder nipped at her fingertips like an untrained dog. A cool night wind tore through her curly hair, splaying it like a flag in the wind as she climbed. The longer they clambered up the massive crane, the more her muscles ached. Above her, Percy seemed to be scaling the crane completely unbothered despite the extra weight on his back.

She tried her best not to look down, but human nature made it hard to resist. Glancing below her for a brief moment, she felt a lump in her throat. They were almost to the top now, making the lights of the shipping yard below appear like glittering stars. It was beautiful in a way, as long as you could ignore the wind whistling in your ears as you scaled a hundred-meter-tall crane with nothing fastening you to it.

"You coming?" she heard from above her, drawing her attention from the world far beneath her.

She looked up, seeing Percy's masked face peering down at her over the top edge of the crane. One eyebrow was raised questioningly, though his eyes sparkled with amusement. She groaned and continued to climb as his head disappeared over the edge. It would be just like Percy to wonder why someone could be afraid of being up a hundred meters with no safety net. It was like he didn't have a single scared bone in his body.

Pulling herself over the top of the ladder, she found herself on a small platform, barely wide enough for two men abreast to walk across it. Percy was already at the end crouched on one knee, his hands working carefully to assemble a sniper rifle. She joined him at his side just in time to watch him screw on the silencer. It was impressive how quickly he'd put it together considering the only light to go by up here was the dim moon from behind the heavy clouds. He obviously had the muscle memory for it, but she wasn't sure where from.

"Remind me again why we're the ones up here." She commented. "Last I checked, Jason was the one who was in the military, not you. Shouldn't he be the one covering us with a sniper?"

Percy laughed, laying himself down with the sniper in front of him. He fiddled with the scope for a bit, giving it a few adjustments before nodding to himself, seemingly satisfied. Turning to look at her, he handed her a spotters scope, gesturing for her to lay next to him.

"Jason's a soldier, sure, and a damn good one at that, but being a sniper was never his forte." Percy explained, nuzzling himself closer to the gun.

"And it just so happens to be yours?" she commented drily.

"Yeah. Frank taught me how, and I caught on quick I guess." He explained. Noticing the look of confusion on her face, he elaborated further. "Oh, right. I forgot you don't know Frank. He's ex-military, just like Jason. Difference is, Frank was a sniper. Best there was according to Jason."

"And you just picked up sniping? Like it was riding a bike or something?" she asked, astonished.

"Exactly like that. Only took a few days. Admittedly, Frank was a good teacher." He conceded nonchalantly, as if picking up a skill so difficult was child's play.

"You keep saying was…" she said, her voice low.

"You're right, I do. Frank… He's MIA, presumably captured, as of about a week before you and I met. So for now, until we rescue him, he only gets 'was' unfortunately."

"And you don't think he's… you know…"

He didn't say anything for a while. The wind had chilled to a slow breeze as they talked, and the waves lapping at the port below seemed to have lulled a bit. The world was weirdly quiet around them. It was as if nature itself was listening in on their words, giving the dreary conversation an eerie feel.

"No… No." Percy repeated carefully. He sounded like he was trying to reassure himself more than convince her.

"No, they wouldn't kill him. He's a cybernetic soldier, like Jason, but Frank? His enhancement is one of a kind. He's part of the newest generation of enhancements. His isn't as simple as Jason's or Piper's. He can alter his own body… Kind of. You know, temporarily give himself the eyes of an eagle, or the strength of a gorilla, stuff like that. I have no clue how it works, but neither would any of Nakumara's gang, which probably saved his life." He explained.

"How would being that dangerous save him? Wouldn't they just want to erase him?" She asked, mind racing with all the things someone with Frank's ability was capable of.

"That's what I thought too, at least until the warehouse. Think about it," he prompted. "This gang we're dealing with, they've shown interest in advanced tech already with that stolen encryption. Frank's enhancement is as 'advanced tech' as it gets. I highly doubt they'd kill him when they could be trying to figure out how to replicate him."

"I guess that makes sense." She said carefully. She could see his point, but she wasn't completely convinced, and didn't want to dash her friend's hopes. "Just another person to add to the long list of people to save, right?"

"Right, which is why tonight is so important. This could be everything. We need this to work out."

Hazel said nothing, instead opting to wait patiently for the go signal. Peering into her spotters scope, she scanned the shipyard below. She could see all the armed gunman patrolling, and she wondered if even Percy and Jason could make it through this many together. Nakumara was holed up tight, that was for sure.

A buzz in her ear told her that coms were now active. That meant Jason was in position. Swinging her scope around, it took her a few moments to find him just outside the entrance to the shipyard, cloaked in shadows. There was static and a loud shrieking noise that pounded against her ear drum, and then Jason's voice filled her head.

"I'm in position. Are you both set?" he asked, his voice muffled and low.

"Yea we're set."

"Jason are you sure we shouldn't wait for backup?" Hazel asked carefully, hoping he wouldn't take offense to her worry.

"Probably, but there isn't any. The intel Annabeth got said Nakumara is moving from this locale tonight. None of our other people can be pulled away from their current assignments quick enough to help, so we're all that's left." Jason explained, the sound of a gun being loaded audible softly in the background. They were really doing this with just three people.

"Believe me Hazel, we're more than enough." Percy said from beside her, his tongue dripping with confidence. "Alright Jason, you ready?" Percy questioned, waving his scope towards the two guards on the catwalk above the entrance Jason was crouched near.

"Locked and loaded." Jason affirmed. "Weapons hot. Mission is a go."

"Range?" Percy said from next to her.

"Four hundred meters." She said, thankful for the scope having a range finder built in. Percy grunted in confirmation.

Hazel listened as Percy took a strong breath, capturing it in his lungs. His finger constricted around the trigger, and his body jolted back a bit, the sound of a bullet tearing through the air audible for a brief moment. In her spotters scope, she saw the first guard drop, hitting the walkway like a sack of potatoes. She heard Percy cycle the bolt once, a shell clinking against the platform they were laying on as it clattered away.

"Hit." She said softly, her voice lofted by the breeze.

Already Hazel was moving to the next target, but Percy was way ahead of her. Still on the same held breath, he paused for an infinitesimally small moment before firing again. The second guy dropped like the first before he could even process his friends demise. This time, the force of the shot sent him tumbling over the railing, plummeting onto the ground below. He landed with a thump just a few feet from where Jason was hiding.

"Hit."

"Jason, you're clear for entry."

"Roger."

She watched him push into the facility, walking carefully through the lanes made by the stacked crates. Jason was dropping man after man on his own completely undetected in a strikingly familiar way to Percy at the warehouse. While he took the ground patrols, Percy and Hazel worked together to pick off the men keeping watch overhead.

It was efficient wet work at its finest. Until it wasn't. Jason missed a guy, and they hadn't noticed either. He'd been cloaked in shadows, nearly invisible, but now he was in the open, and he saw the intruder. The goon was raising his gun, aiming right at Jason's back.

"Behind Jason." Hazel rushed out. "Four hundred and fifty meters out."

Before she even finished talking, Percy was letting another bullet fly, obviously having seen the same man. The round zoomed through the air, but it was just a split second too late. The gunman fell, dead before he touched the ground, but the damage was done. His aim had been thrown off by Percy's shot, but he'd let out a crackle of gunfire as his corpse fell, the bullets rattling off into the sky.

"Shit," Percy muttered. "Jason, you're about to have a ton of angry hosts mad at their uninvited guest."

Almost on cue, the distant sound of an alarm rang out. She saw Jason run off the open path, squeezing into a little alcove between shipment crates to take cover, but it looked like it would be a fatal mistake. It was quite literally a dead end. He turned to escape, but it was already too late. An entire group of guards already had him boxed in.

Next to her, Percy was cycling through bullets like mad, dropping guard after guard as they streamed towards him, but there were just too many. He picked off the ones still grouping up, but the mass was too large. Jason was trapped, hands above his head as he faced a firing squad, the only people nearby too far away to really help. The goons were closing in, guns trained on Jason, and Hazel couldn't force herself to remove her eye from the spotters scope. She couldn't tear herself away from the image of her leader seconds away from being gunned down.

"C'mon. Just a bit longer." She heard Percy mutter beside her.

And then she realized what was happening. Looking closer, she could see the blue glow behind Jason's head. She could hear the crackle of electricity through the coms. The noise grew louder, the light brighter. He was charging a shot. In a blur of motion, Jason lowered his arm, a blast of electricity bursting forth like a lightning bolt, detonating in the center of the clump of soldiers Percy hadn't picked off. Even from the top of the crane, the explosion was deafening. When the dust settled, it was just Jason, surrounded by a pile of ash and debris, standing over a smoldering crater.

"Quite the show." Percy commented drily.

"Yeah, well, you left me with no choice when you let that guy get shots off." Jason shot back, obviously agitated by how quickly the mission had gone south. Percy opened his mouth to retort, but something stopped him.

Behind Jason, there was a blur of motion. A black outfitted man, almost imperceptible against the night, had somehow survived the blast, walking slowly behind Jason, careful not to alert the soldier. He didn't have a gun, he probably lost it in the blast, but a silver knife glittered dangerously underneath the shipyard lights. He was closing in, and fast, and Jason was too busy on coms to hear him.

Hazel opened her mouth to warn Jason, but Percy was way ahead of her again, letting loose another shot before she could speak. A hand flew to her mouth. The wind was blowing ferociously now, and with the way Jason was walking, his body was almost completely in front of the thug, leaving only the smallest room for error. It was a nearly impossible window. About as risky of a shot as Percy could have taken.

The bullet whizzed by so close it ruffled Jason's hair, the sound of the whistling wind being sent back to Percy and Hazel through the coms. The man dropped to the ground behind Jason, dead on arrival, a bullet hole centered directly in his forehead. Jason jumped in surprise, caught off guard by the sniper bullet as it flew by, mere inches from dropping him just as quickly.

"Jesus Christ, Percy! What the hell?" he cried, voice an octave higher than usual.

"Wow, that's a funny way of saying 'Thanks for shooting the guy that was about to stab me, Percy' don't you think?" Percy said, voice oozing sarcasm. Hazel bit her lip next to him, trying not to laugh at Jason's expense.

"Thank you?" Jason protested. "Percy all you had to do was say 'behind you' and I would've taken care of him. Instead, you took a shot into a violent cross wind with low visibility and about an inch of room for error. You could've missed, and then what?" Jason ranted, understandably upset. Hazel begrudgingly admitted Jason had a point in scolding her mentor but chose not to voice it. What, she wasn't allowed to play favorites?

"Please…" Percy said with indignation, seemingly offended that Jason would even consider the notion. "I never miss. You know that."

"I… I don't even… That doesn't warrant a response." Jason griped. "Let's just get back on mission, before I climb that crane just to kick you off." Percy rolled his eyes but agreed to return to their previous focus.

The rest of the mission went almost completely unopposed. It seems most of the guards had been taken out by Jason's arm blaster, leaving him to make it to the cargo yard office nearly unimpeded. Now, standing outside the door, the importance of the moment came crashing down on them all. This was the moment they'd been waiting for. Their biggest opportunity since before Hazel had even joined.

"He should be just inside Jason. Third door on the left, working on a final order list for illegal contraband." Hazel said, referencing the notes Annabeth had provided them. Beside her, she heard Percy chuckle, muttering something about criminals and having a black-market Amazon.

"Got it."

"This is it Jase. Once you're in, you're on your own." Percy said, sobering up quickly.

"I know. I got it." Jason said, slinging his assault rifle over his back in favor of a more maneuverable pistol.

"Good. Now go get the son of a bitch."

Jason didn't waste any time, breaching the door with a booted foot. Muffled through the coms, they could hear the sounds of silenced muzzle fire, along with distant gunshots ricocheting off of metal walls. The gunfire crackled through their heads, bouncing off their skulls like a tennis ball.

Eventually, the gunshots faded away, replaced by the sound of a more physical struggle. They could hear body blows, panting, and violent grunts echoing through their earpieces, leaving them to imagine the ensuing brawl. It continued for a while, leaving the two to sit anxiously, waiting for something to happen. There was a resounding crack, and then the sound of guttural choking.

"Jason, do you copy?" Hazel asked, desperate to know what was going on. He didn't answer her, so she said again, more worried this time, "Jason, do you hear me?"

It was the longest two seconds of her life, listening to the gurgling noises as someone was ruthlessly strangled on the other end. Two long seconds wondering if they were taking Jason home in a body bag. Two long seconds until,

"I'm here… And I've got Nakumara." Jason said, voice tight with strain. Nakumara was still struggling?

"Well will you stop playing around and capture him already?" Percy groaned, obviously disgruntled that he was trapped away from the action.

"Capture him? I've got half a mind to kill him right now." Jason growled out. They heard the sound of electricity charging up, and their eyes widened.

"Jason, are you fucking crazy?" Percy yelled. "Don't do something reckless."

"Reckless? You're one to lecture me about reckless, Percy. You almost shot me! Or better yet, remember exactly how we met, and then try calling me reckless." Jason grunted out, obviously still fighting Nakumara's thrashing form.

"What's he talking about?" Hazel asked, whirling on Percy. Something in the way Jason had said it, like he'd honestly thought Percy was insane, was alarming to her. She knew they had their differences, but this was something else. Something much more worrisome. Mission aside, she needed to know what made Jason seem almost afraid of her friend.

"It doesn't matter." Percy said shortly, biting back something else. Now wasn't the time. "Jason, you know you can't kill him. You kill him before we get him to talk, Thalia dies. Are you looking for revenge, or are you looking to save your sister?" His voice was pleading. It couldn't end like this.

There was silence for a moment. Nothing from the other end of the coms. Slowly, the crackling electricity returned, building up like a violent static. Hazel and Percy looked at each other wide eyed as the noise grew. With a burst, the blast was discharged, followed by their screams. Maybe it could end like this.

"Jason, what the hell did you do?" Percy cried.

"Jason, please tell me you didn't just kill him." Hazel choked out, tears threatening to form in her eyes. He couldn't have, could he? If he had, he'd killed more than just Nakumara. He'd sealed the fates of everyone's loved ones. Thalia… Frank… Her mother…

"Relax," Jason panted, sounding pleased. "I just knocked him out. Percy, Hazel, we got him. It's over. It's done."

Hazel felt relief wash over her, but it didn't last long. They had Nakumara, but something in her stomach told her that even now this was far from over. Just one glance at Percy told her he felt the same thing. Whatever was going on in Sapphire City, it was just getting started.

XxXxX

AN:

There we are guys, another chapter in the books. I really hope you enjoyed. I wanted to do a lot in this chapter. You see more of the dynamic between Percy and Jason, first of all, along with mentions of tensions with Annabeth. More importantly, we can see how Hazel is sort of at the stage where she's enamored with Percy, hanging on his every word. He's essentially taken over her life in a mentor role, so to speak. Also, I'm continuing to drop hints every chapter into both Percy's background and the future of the plot. I'm sure some of you will piece together the clues, you just have to look hard enough. That's all I've got for this chapter, please be sure to review and let me know what you thought. Until the next time,

Peace