AN:
Hey guys, guess who's back. That's right. Me. And not just me either, I've brought a chapter with. Here it is, chapter 7 of "All That's Left"
XxXxX
It was a week before Will cleared Hazel to return to action. A week of painstaking rehab. A week of sitting in a bed waiting. Waiting and hoping that it was all some bad dream. Hoping that she'd imagined all of it and any second now she'd wake up and things would be normal again. Hoping that Percy would walk through the door, tell her it was all some twisted joke, and she needed to be ready for some dangerous mission or another right away, just like he always did. Instead, every morning she'd been met with the same crippling realization. He was gone, and things were worse than they'd ever been.
As much as many of the people in their little organization had wanted Percy gone, everyone knew what his leaving had cost them. He was their best operative, and the one who usually took on the most dangerous assignments. Without him, the workload was becoming almost too much to bear, and some of the more dangerous missions were being disregarded entirely. She assumed that was why only a week after waking up she found herself in Jason's office, preparing for a mission briefing she probably had no business partaking in considering her current health. Things were just that desperate around here.
Jason's office was more filled than she'd ever seen it when she arrived. Normally, it was just her and Percy in the cushy chairs, weathering the storm as Jason berated them for some wild thing Percy had done. This time around, it was stuffed to the brim with people, Clarisse La Rue, Travis Stoll, Annabeth Chase, Will Solace, and so many others that many of them had to stand. Each one of them was looking equally puzzled by the sheer number of people involved in the meeting. No one had the faintest clue what assignment could require nearly everyone they had at their disposal.
Jason was sitting behind his desk, leaning on crossed hands in front of him with a stony look on his face. His mouth was set in a thin and unamused line. He'd been more serious and militaristic than ever since Percy left. Hazel knew Jason was hurting over Percy's departure, much like she was. After all, Jason and Percy had started this group together, and you didn't work so closely for so long with someone and not become good friends. It was the main reason she wasn't as angry at the blonde as she probably should have been. Jason hadn't wanted Percy to go either. Unfortunately, the desires of too many outweighed what her, Jason, and a few others had wanted, and now they were here.
Behind her, the sound of the heavy doors to Jason's office swinging open drew the attention of everyone in the room. Countless pairs of eyes fell on the new arrival, a short Latino boy with elfish features, his face decorated with sheening splotches of motor oil. Hazel recognized him immediately, and her curiosity shot through the roof. What was Leo Valdez doing at a mission briefing? Last she heard; Leo hadn't done anything but work on equipment and tech in his entire tenure as a member of their group. It was extremely out of the ordinary, even given the dire circumstances.
"You're late." Jason chided from behind his desk. Although his words were accusing, his voice wasn't altogether very vindictive. The soldier had always seemed to have a soft spot for the mechanic turned weapons technician.
"Ah. Sorry." Leo apologized, fiddling with a clump of metal parts in his hands. "Trying out something new in the workshop. I got a little distracted." He gave a nervous chuckle.
"Right." Jason breathed out. He seemed too tired to question Leo further. "Anyways, now that we're all here we can get started."
"Get started with what, exactly?" Annabeth asked. "You weren't very clear when you asked us to meet here."
"I know." He nodded. "But you're all here because I need all of you with me on a field mission. Every single one, to the last man."
To Hazel's left, one of their field operatives, Clarisse, let out a short bark of laughter. Hazel scowled to herself. She'd never liked the girl. Clarisse was brash, rude, violent, and altogether an unpleasant person to be around in the best of times. Worse yet, the girl had a nasty habit of picking fights with Percy, at least when he'd still been there, and hadn't been shy about her giddy feelings regarding his departure. To say the least, Hazel wasn't her biggest fan.
"You can't be serious, Jason. You want to take blondie and Valdez into the field? They're more likely to shoot themselves than anyone else." Clarisse sneered.
Leo didn't seem to be too offended by that. If anything, he seemed to agree. He'd turned to Jason expectantly, as if he'd been about to ask the same thing. Annabeth on the other hand, had too much pride to allow herself to be slandered, especially in front of so many. Her eyes narrowed, swirling storms of thundercloud grey drilling holes into Clarisse's skull. Hazel fought shriveling under the withering stare, and it wasn't even directed at her.
"I used to be a field operative before Clarisse, and you know it. I can handle myself and then some." Annabeth snipped; her tone bitter.
"Yeah, you used to be one. 'Used to' being the key phrase. Now all you do is sit behind a keyboard and play password guesser. The most dangerous thing you've faced in the last year is carpal tunnel." Clarisse retorted, beady pig eyes baring down on the blonde hacker.
"Ooh, nice one." Travis Stoll whispered amusedly to himself. He was promptly ignored.
"The only reason I stopped going into the field is because we have plenty of people smart enough to point a gun. I'm the only one who can do my job. I'm a vital resource. You're as replaceable as you are dull."
"Are you calling me dumb, girlie?" Clarisse growled. She rose quickly from her seat, filling the room with a shrill scraping noise as her chair went sliding back against the cool stone floor.
"I thought it was obvious. I guess I should've known you wouldn't understand." Annabeth taunted, rising to meet her. Her hands balled into fists at her side, ready to defend herself if need be.
They were nose to nose now, faces red with anger. Just as things seemed to be about to escalate from verbal to physical, Jason stepped between them, a strong hand on their shoulders pushing them apart. They fought against him, but the force of his arms kept girls at bay.
"Enough. You're both very important assets, so I'd appreciate if you would not kill each other arguing over who we need more. Can you please both just sit down so we can get through this?"
They held their positions for a moment, refusing to back down, before they both eventually nodded in hesitant agreement. Reluctantly, the two completely separated and returned to their seats, resigning themselves to glaring at each other from across the room. Jason returned to his desk, letting out a frustrated sigh before reclaiming his seat. The bags under his eyes were heavy, but his blue eyes still held confidence in them.
"Look. We need all hands on deck for this. Now that Hazel is healthy enough to move, we can get started."
"Started with what, exactly?" Hazel asked, curious as to why she of all people was the key in all of this.
"We're going back. To Luke's base, I mean. And this time we're bringing enough backup to fight a war."
Hazel felt her breath hitch a little in her throat. She wasn't sure how she felt about going back so soon. Especially considering how her last experience there ended.
"So, we were waiting for Hazel, why?" Clarisse said, rolling her eyes. "She worked with Prissy, but that doesn't make her Prissy. She won't make or break this thing. What's she going to do to help that no one else could do? Get shot again?" Most recoiled at her harsh words, but Hazel saw a few pairs of eyes flash their agreement.
Hazel felt her stomach boil. She always prided herself on being cool and collected. She may be incredibly shy most of the time, and a bit awkward, but she'd never been one to freak out over an insult. Being the loner girl in school had helped her sort of built up a resistance to that type of thing, but Clarisse always managed to get under her skin. This time was no exception to that rule.
"Clarisse." Jason cut in before Hazel could respond. "That's more than enough. Hazel is more than capable. You don't live that long working with Percy Jackson if you're weak. But we don't need her to help us shoot our way in anyways. That's what everyone else is for. She's still healing. We need her because she's the only one who's already been inside. The only one with any idea what's waiting for us. If we're to be successful, we'll need that experience."
People nodded around the room, understanding the reasoning. Hazel felt a bit of nervousness nip at her brain. All these people were going to be relying on her knowledge. That was a lot of pressure.
"You want to go back to the lab her and Percy found, don't you? To see what they couldn't?" Annabeth asked, following his train of thought. Jason nodded in affirmation.
"I do. Percy and Hazel didn't have enough time before Luke found them to find any concrete answers. We need concrete answers. If we can get back into that lab, and we can get more information, we'll be that much closer to ending this once and for all."
Everyone around the room soaked what he was saying in for a moment. Percy and Hazel had snuck in, just two of them, and still hadn't gone unnoticed. To get all these people in would be like wearing a necklace with a cowbell on it and screaming 'look at me!' as you ran through the front door. It was risky, but it could be exactly what they needed to get to the bottom of things.
A pair of hands clapping together broke the silence.
"I love a good break in." Travis cheered, an impish smile on his face.
"I was counting on that." Jason said knowingly. "I was hoping you'd be able to get us in relatively unnoticed."
"I can do that." Travis replied happily. Hazel could already see the gears turning in his head as he imagined all the deviously juicy ways to break in unnoticed.
"Good. You better come up with something fast though."
"Why? When does this all go down?" Clarisse asked, her voice eager. Her eyes danced with hunger. Hazel could swear the girl would eat violence for every meal of the day if she could.
"Tomorrow." Jason said, voice strong. "Gather all the equipment you'll need. Get your rest. Ready yourself for a fight. Because tomorrow, we go to war."
XxXxX
Two hours in a sewer wasn't exactly Hazel's ideal night out, but according to Travis, it was the best way to break into a place. Apparently, it was significantly easier to do it this way because most people didn't expect anyone to wade through a river of disgustingly filthy water just to sneak in. It was an understandable assumption. If they weren't so desperate, the smell alone, not to mention the knee-deep sewage, would have been enough of a natural deterrent to keep them above ground.
They'd been walking in a single file line, each person careful to stay close to the person ahead of them. It wouldn't do to get lost down here. Annabeth had a copy of the city sewer plans, courtesy of her affinity for finding information online, and had made it abundantly clear that Sapphire City's sewers were a labyrinth and then some, meaning if you got lost it was probably the last thing you were going to do. The warning had Hazel on high alert, eyes trained on the person in front of her. Dying alone in a stream of human excrement was far from how she wanted to go.
"How much longer?" she heard someone up ahead ask, sounding as bored as she felt.
Despite them not being too far ahead, and their voice not being particularly hushed, she still barely heard them. The sound of flowing water combined with the dozens of feet sloshing through it reverberating off the tunnel walls made it difficult to hear. She strained her ears to hear the other side of the conversation, curious to hear the answer herself.
"Not much longer at all." Came the reply from Annabeth. "In fact, we're here."
That sparked a reaction. Suddenly, the entire column of people took on a more serious demeanor. In an instant, the hushed idle chatter died out, replaced with stern faces and muted mouths. The column quickly formed up, gathering in ranks around Jason and Travis. In seconds, they'd gone from a merry band of sewer hikers to a well-oiled war machine.
"Alright everyone, listen up." Came Jason's powerful voice. He raised a hand to draw attention to himself. "We should be right underneath Luke's facility. In a few minutes, Travis will have us through the ceiling and into the base. From then on, it's on all of you to take care of business. It'll be dangerous. It'll be chaotic. It'll be war. We'll need to watch each other's backs. Stick together, and fight like your life depends on it, because it does. You do that, and we'll be back here with joy in our hearts and victory cries on our lips."
There was a brief cheer, loud and hopeful. It echoed off the walls, bouncing off the stone and into Hazel's eardrums. The noise was invigorating, sending a shot of adrenaline coursing through her veins at breakneck speeds. As the cheers died out, Travis stepped forward, hoisting a large tank of water on his back. Extending from the end of the tank was a large hose, hooked up to a powerful nozzle.
"I'd like everyone to give Leo a quick round of applause for bringing my idea to life on such short notice." Travis said with a smile, twirling the nozzle in his hand like a cowboy in an old western. "I give you, the most effective key known to man."
Everyone shared confused looks, eyes darting between Leo, Travis, and the nozzle in his hands. A dull murmur swept over the crowd as they questioned the device amongst themselves. Travis seemed oblivious to their puzzlement, mistaking it for them being impressed, and made a show of twirling the nozzle with great showmanship, trying to play to the crowd. Leo, however, was able to pick up on the groups shared bewilderment and made to enlighten them.
"It's a high-pressure water cannon." Leo elaborated, waving his hand towards the tank on Travis' back. "Sort of like a power washer, only way, way stronger. Travis had the idea, I just made it happen."
"Really repair boy? You actually expect us to believe we're going to cut through stone with a squirt gun?"
Leo didn't seem to mind the nickname, but he bristled at the doubt for the viability of his invention. It was just like what Hazel had come to expect from the inventor. Most of the time it felt like he valued his creations over himself.
"It's hardly a squirt gun. That thing could strip the white off rice. Show him Travis." He retorted defensively. He nodded towards Travis, sending a silent message for him to show off what his so called 'squirt gun' was capable of.
"I thought you'd keep me waiting forever." Travis said with a grin, raising the nozzle to the ceiling with noticeable glee. His finger compressed on the trigger, and the tank on his back started to whir. "Let's see what this baby can do."
The whirring stood alone for a moment. Soft and dull, but it didn't last long. It rapidly climbed in pitch and volume, transforming into a shrill scream as the machine presumably built up power, before it finally turned all the way on.
Water exploded from the nozzle, jetting towards the ceiling in a razon thin stream. It hit the roof with an explosion of mist, and the sound of slicing filled the air. The noise made Hazel grit her teeth. It was loud, and the mist was raining down on her and everyone else in thick waves. The aerosolized water mixed with the congealed slime it had blasted off the roof, pouring a dirty haze down on them, but it didn't matter. It was working.
As the minutes dragged on, the incessant whining of the water cannon was starting to wear down everyone's already frayed nerves even faster than the stone it was cutting. Just before she thought she'd reached her limit, a large cracking sound permeated the air. With one last twist of the nozzle from Travis, the ceiling gave way. A large circle of concrete plummeted from the roof above, falling to the water below. It hit faster than many could avoid, sending a splash of rancid sewer water across the fronts of anyone too slow to turn away.
"I told you it would work!" Leo shouted over the sound of everyone's disgusted cries. People seemed to be less interested in the success of his design, and more interested in retching and spluttering as they mourned their now soaked clothes.
"Okay, now what?" someone asked, spitting out a mouthful of disgusting sewer water. Travis smiled knowingly.
"Now, we turn to a much more familiar invention."
He beckoned over Leo, who unslung a bag from his shoulders. Reaching inside, they pulled out what looked to be a foldable ladder. Just a few short seconds later and they had it leaned up against the hole in the roof, set up for easy access. Now Luke's compound was only a ladder's climb away.
Hazel had to admit, Travis' method of breaking and entering was a little more convoluted than Percy's 'climb through a window' strategy, but it had its merit. They were closer to the lab now, and even with the noise they'd made, they had a much higher likelihood of going unnoticed for longer.
It took far longer than they'd hoped to get everyone up the ladder. Every second counted, and since they were forced to go one by one, the minutes felt like hours as they dragged on. The longer they lingered in one place, the more dangerous things became. A wave of relief washed over everyone when the last person had finally made it over the edge of the circular hole in the floor. They could finally get moving.
"Alright Hazel." Jason said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's up to you now. Show us the way."
"Right." She bit her lip nervously. "Percy and I didn't really come this way, so I really have no clue where to go either." She admitted.
Embarrassment nibbled at her insides. Jason had made sure everyone knew that they were relying on her, but she didn't have the knowledge they were relying on her for. She'd let them down. Clarisse had been right. She was still too weak to help, and she certainly wasn't guiding them through parts of the building she'd never seen before.
Jason must have noticed her trepidation. He frowned, leaning forward to bring his eyes level with hers. There was an intensity there that she didn't often see from him. In fact, it was a look that she didn't often see from anyone, other than Percy that is. It was a look that said, 'I trust and believe in you implicitly'. It felt strange coming from him, but comforting. It reminded her of Percy, and that was a good thing when she was stressed like this.
"Listen." Jason lowered his voice so only Hazel could hear him. "Percy told me about the first time you came here. He said he let you choose which way when there was no clear option. You chose right. It may have seemed trivial to you then; it was anything but. Percy doesn't just let people make decisions for him like that. He believed in your gut, and he's usually right about that sort of thing. If he trusts your instincts, then so do I... You should too."
"I doubt many of them will be too pleased that you're having everyone follow me because Percy trusts me." She muttered sullenly, walking towards the front of the group anyways.
Although she wasn't showing it, his words gave her the confidence she needed. Knowing Percy had that confidence in her was sort of like getting permission to believe in yourself. Even wherever he was now, he was still helping her make strides.
"Don't worry. I won't tell them if you won't." Jason said as he fell in stride with her. He shot her a wink with one electric blue eye.
She didn't know what to say to that, so she chose to remain silent. Everyone else fell into ranks behind them, trailing with soft steps. Even treading lightly, their sheer numbers made a disconcerting amount of noise as she navigated the many underground corridors. Each looked the same as the last, but every time they came to a crossroads, she did what Jason had told her to do. She trusted her gut.
After a while, just when she was starting to feel like they'd been walking in circles, things started to get familiar. Not in looks per say, no, the corridor they currently occupied was no different than the rest. Things were familiar in a more sinister way. The same eerie feeling from the last time she was here washed over her. It was the worst kind of déjà vu. It felt like she was about to relive her worst moment, only this time she saw it coming.
Swallowing the bile that was threatening to jump out of her throat, she burst through the final door, finding herself immersed in the same nightmare she'd already lived through. The same tanks from before still lined the walls. The same surgical tables still dominated the center of the room, bloody tools strewn haphazardly about. It was like nothing had been touched since she'd last been there. The room before her was a frozen in time replica of her last visit, at least it would be, if not for one thing. A large pool of dried blood, more than any human should ever bleed, caked the floor like a crimson dust. A giant circle of red marking where she'd fallen. A relic of her dance with death.
She froze at the sight of it. People filtered past her, mouths agape with astonishment and horror, much like she'd looked the first time she'd been there, but she paid them no mind. Her eyes remained locked on the dried sea of red. It had been much easier to ignore what had happened and focus on recovery back home, but here, with the evidence of her trauma thrust into the spotlight, it was hitting her like a freight train. She'd almost died. She should've died. She shouldn't be alive. It all should've ended right there, right in that patch of red.
"It's alright, Hazel." Jason said from her side, tearing her away from her runaway mind. A small sympathetic smile adorned his features. He must have sensed her inner turmoil. "I was pretty messed up the first time something like that happened to me, too. Took a while to come to grips with my first brush with death. Believe me, it gets easier if you just accept your luck and move on."
She looked up at him, mouth pressed into a thin line.
"I'm not messed up by it." She lied. "I was just thinking about how scary that must have been for Percy. All I did was bleed out, he's the one who actually had to do something about it. If anyone should be messed up about it, it's him."
The second part wasn't a lie. She felt terrible about putting Percy in that position, although she'd never tell him as much. He would be offended by the idea that she felt sorry for getting shot, but she did. If she had done something, anything besides nothing, maybe she wouldn't have nearly died. Then maybe Percy wouldn't have had to deal with that trauma either. Maybe he'd still be here. Maybe she wouldn't feel so alone.
"Believe me Hazel, no one feels worse about what happened than he does." Jason said, obviously trying to comfort her. It had the opposite effect.
"Yeah." She mumbled back. "That's why I feel so bad. It wasn't his fault."
Jason opened his mouth to argue further, but a sound in the background of all the crowd noise tickled their eardrums. Bootsteps. Lots of them. They were drawing nearer too. They'd been discovered, and this time it wasn't just Luke coming to talk. This sounded like an army was bearing down on them, about to strike. This was the resistance they'd been expecting.
"We've got company!" Jason shouted, already turning to the door. "Leo, Annabeth, you know your jobs. Will, stay here and wait for any wounded to be brought in. Patch them up as best you can with what you brought. The rest of you are with me. It's go time."
The blonde soldier unholstered his pistol and Hazel made to do the same, but a hand stopped her. As everyone else ran ahead of him to prepare a defense, Jason paused to stare her down. Blue eyes met her gold ones, a message being clearly conveyed. I didn't mean you. She was going to argue, but a shake of the head stopped her in her tracks. She wanted to defy his orders, but she didn't really have a choice in the matter. He could punish her, or he could outright stop her from leaving the room. If it came to her versus Jason in a physical struggle, it would be laughably one sided. Reluctantly she nodded, accepting that he was sidelining her.
Jason grunted in approval before running off to join everyone else still filtering through the door. In a few seconds the room had completely cleared out, leaving her, Will, Leo, and Annabeth on their own. After the door slid shut behind the last man, it was quite for a moment. You could almost pretend there wasn't a huge battle about to go down just a few feet past the metal entrance.
That fantasy lasted only a short time before the fighting started in abrupt fashion. Gunshots went from nonexistent to going off at a scary rate. In the blink of an eye the once quiet hallway had become a warzone. Even through the thick walls, it sounded like a bag of popcorn being microwaved amplified times a thousand. She closed her eyes, trying to pretend that it was just a group of overly patriotic rednecks on the fourth of July and not a fight that her comrades would be injured and killed in. Pretending didn't work. She could still hear the fighting. She could still hear the screams.
She needed a distraction from the shiver inducing gunfire. Turning back to scan the room, she saw Annabeth hunched over the same computer that Percy had been last time. Her fingers danced furiously on the keyboard with a familiarity that only someone like Annabeth could eve have, typing faster than Hazel's eyes could follow. Whatever she was doing, it was clearly important, and she was clearly in a hurry, so Hazel decided not to disturb her.
Next, she found Leo, examining the floor in front of where Luke had been standing. His brows were furrowed in confusion, and he was tapping a foot on the floor as he oozed oodles of nervous energy. She decided he was a safer bet for a distraction from the chaos outside. He was friendlier, and much less likely to bite his head off for asking questions.
"What are you looking for?" she asked, trying to ignore the gunshots and yells still coming from outside the door.
"What? Oh." Leo said, obviously not having heard her approach. "Jason told me about the wall-thing Percy had described. The one that blocked the bullets I mean. I'm trying to turn it on so I can see what it is. I have several theories. If I can confirm one then maybe I can figure out-"
"How to shoot through it?" she interrupted. He nodded. "Okay. Shooting through it would be good. How can I help?"
"Just look for anything that could be a hidden switch or something. You didn't see him touch anything right? That means it's probably something he could activate subtly. Some way he turned it on without you guys knowing."
"Got it. Subtle switches." She mumbled, already turning away.
She scanned the ground around where Luke had stood for a while. Despite her and Leo's intense scrutiny, there was nothing that looked remotely close to a magic shield button. Still, it had to be there, because if it wasn't, they were faced with the unfortunate idea that Luke could bring it anywhere. If that ended up being the case, they were even more royally screwed, because that meant Luke was even more dangerous than they already thought.
"Found it!" she heard Leo yell, voice crackling with excitement.
She turned around in a hurry, too fast to think about what might happen. All she saw was Leo standing over a tile depressed into the ground before she met resistance, and a lot of it. Bumping face first into the mystical wall, she was sent stumbling back a few steps. Leo laughed at her misfortune but she ignored him, instead choosing to rub the pain out of her face. Once she recovered from her accidental encounter with the wall, she took a few steps closer, extending a hand to touch the invisible wall.
"Do you have any idea what this thing is?" she mumbled.
Her eyes were trained on her fingertips. They twisted and turned against the wall, unable to push through. Near where she was touching, the invisible wall had lit up with blue light, extending like waves and slowly fading into nothingness as they distanced themselves from her fingers.
"A pretty good idea." Leo responded, examining the wall with a much more calculating eye. "I'm amazed this is actually here though. This is impressive technology. Incredibly sophisticated."
"What is it? Can you make something to shoot through it?" she asked, curiosity piqued. Leo shook his head amusedly, eyes trailing the blue waves framing her hand.
"No, I couldn't make something to shoot through it. At least not very easily. As for what it is, well, honestly, I couldn't explain it if I wanted to. To you and anyone else, except maybe Annabeth, it would sound like a different language. All you need to know is, this thing is insanely strong, but I don't think we should be worried about it too much."
"We shouldn't be worried about an invisible bullet blocking wall that can be summoned on command?" she asked incredulously.
"Nah." He chuckled to himself. "It made for a cool party trick the one time, sure, but there's no way this thing is portable. You can make moveable versions, but not this strong. If you checked outside any of these walls, or underneath the floor, I'm willing to bet you'd see thousands of pounds of equipment just to generate this one shield. As long as we're not operating in this exact room, we have more important things to worry about."
"Well that's good news."
"Yeah. Maybe." He didn't seem as pleased as she'd expected. "But I don't like what having this shield here at all means for us."
"You mean the fact that they have even more advanced technology." Hazel realized what he was thinking.
"Exactly. We're dealing with a group of kidnapping, human experimenting, murderous crazies, and the head of them all is a nutcase, even by their standards. That's already bad enough. The biggest problem though, is that they have enough tech and money to fight an actual war. Too much for just some gang of street thugs. I want to know where they're getting it, because this just isn't normal."
She opened her mouth to respond, but the sound of a metal door sliding cut her off. She must have missed the sound of fighting stopping during their conversation. Instantly, her and Leo's eyes whipped towards the door, silently hoping it would be a friendly. Luckily, it was a familiar face that showed himself.
"You guys get what you need?" Jason said, sounding winded.
Hazel looked him up and down, too shocked to speak. He was covered in blood, though to be fair most of it probably wasn't his. His clothes were scorched in a few places, and he looked bone tired. He looked like a marathon runner who'd taken a detour through a field of mutilated intestines and billowing ash. If Jason looked like this, the thought of what everyone else must look like made her shudder.
"Yeah, we got it." Annabeth said confidently from her side.
Hazel jumped at the blonde's voice. She hadn't had someone sneak up on her like that since Percy had left. Her eyes swiveled to the hacker, catching the very end of her motion as she tucked something away into her pocket.
"Just in time then." Jason said relief in his tone. "We just finished up. I'm sure they'll have more people here soon. We need to get moving before they get here. We can't hold back another wave."
Hazel gulped. He'd just basically confirmed it. She wasn't going to like what she saw on the other side of that door. If they didn't have the manpower left to fight back, things hadn't gone as well as she'd dared to hope.
"Was it worth it?" she asked carefully, gauging his reaction. "To come back I mean."
Jason's eyes flickered to Annabeth, who's expression gave no clues, before settling back on her again. The usual vibrant lightning blue was dim. Her heart sank further.
"God, I sure hope so."
AN:
I know, I know, I know. 'No Percy? Why am I even reading this story?' I'm sorry. It had to be done. What's the point of splitting he and Hazel up if they reunited instantly? I had to split them up, and I had to show what happened before they join forces again, so unfortunately, since this story follows Hazel's perspective, we have to wait to see him again. Lucky for you, a little birdy told me you don't have to wait much longer. Speaking of waiting, sorry that you had to do that for this chapter. I'm doing my best to churn these out consistently, but right now the best I can manage is one every 4 to 7 days or so. Hopefully quality is making up for quantity. Please let me know as always how you're enjoying or not enjoying, I love the feedback. Anyways, until next time,
Peace