Chapter 6: Forever?
Heeyyyyy again a mix of the storylines in this chapter. You guys are spoiled *Hmph* I don't even make a review requirement for a new chapter... or make you wait. It kinda makes the cliffhangers pointless.
Jk I love you guys.
Leo
Leo awoke in a white-stoned prison. Thankfully, he wasn't chained. His thoughts clouded. Getting supplies... oh yeah Jason said we weren't safe... JASON! Panic took the son of Hephaestus as he whipped his head back and forth, hoping to find his best friend in the room with him.
His eyes rested on a huddled blond figure in the opposite corner. "Jason..." his voice was weak. He quickly crawled over and collapsed against the wall beside the blonde. "Jason?"
Two blue eyes looked up into his brown ones. "Leo... Leo!"
Leo laughed in relief. "Yeah it's me. You were right, we're definitely not safe. I shoulda heard you out. My fault." Jason waved it away.
"But we gotta escape... alive. You ok?"
"I'm fine. You seem fine too." The son of Hephaestus slowly got to his feet and regained his balance. "Here." He offered Jason a hand, which he gratefully accepted.
Dang he's heavy... or maybe "Dang I'm weak and wimpy."
"Thanks. I think I'm balanced again." Saying this, the son of Jupiter shifted his feet.
"No need to thank me. I just hope we can get outta he—" Leo's words were interrupted when a tall centaur opened a huge door, one which Leo had not noticed earlier (both the door and the centaur).
The two captive demigods instantly turned to stare at the tall, muscular horse-man. He spoke.
"Rest up. You fight in the afternoon. And every day from now on... forever." He left without another word. That made Leo nervous.
"F-Fight?" He stared at Jason with an inquiring look.
"Ugh I'm guessing we'll be forced to fight for sport and entertainment. It happened once on one of my old quests, but I got off easy... we're gonna need a lot of good luck to live through this."
Nico/Percy
The last night was weird. But not in a bad way. After they had escaped Piper's lecture, they headed down to the common room to crash in. Percy had brought it up and no one objected. They spent the night watching stupid DVD's and pretty much laughing their asses off—yes a son of Hades could do that just as well as anyone else.
Every now and then, there was the nagging worry for Jason and Leo. Nico managed to push it back (it wasn't hard, considering how hard he was laughing). There was a ton of soda and popcorn. At one point they were even playing truth-or-dare, and each of them took turns doing crazy things while the other two hugged each other, laughing uncontrollably.
The trio had somehow managed to support each other as they staggered back to Percy's cabin, where they all collapsed—Percy on his bed, Frank on the top bunk bed (no idea why that's even in the room), and Nico on the floor beside Percy's bed.
Now the son of Hades was sleepily opening his eyes as sunlight filtered in the room through the blue curtains. The first thing he saw was Percy's hand hanging off the side of the bed, right on top of Nico's face. He lightly pushed it to one side as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Percy? Frank?" There were no responses. Both were sound asleep, which brought a mischievous grin to Nico's face.
He stood up less sleepily and nudged Percy.
"Five more minuuuuuuuu—Nico?" The last part was because he had actually opened his eyes. The last night passed through Percy's mind. He laughed, seeing that Nico's shirt still had PARTY ANIMAL! written on it in red.
"Still need to check if Jason and Leo are back." Nico reminded Percy of their two missing companions, and proceeded to climb the ladder up to Frank. He sat down beside the big guy and nudged him in the stomach. "Frank? Frank. Frank!"
Finally the boy opened his eyes and sat up. "Heey. Are they back?" Nico shrugged, as he made his way back to the floor followed by Frank. Nico sprinted to the bathroom and attempted to lock the door, but Frank and Percy stopped him.
"Nicooooooooo..." Percy whined, causing Nico to laugh. The other two squeezed into the tiny space in front of the basin. "Hmph. Challenge accepted."
Frank and Percy grabbed their toothbrushes and waited for Nico to do the same, which he did timidly. "Um... Perce? Are we all gonna... do it at the same time?"
Percy and Frank both nodded, with serious faces as if their honor depended on this. Both squeezed the toothpaste onto their toothbrush. "Nico?"
"Ah sorry." The shortest boy had zoned out again. He squeezed toothpaste onto his brush and held it up. This isn't going to end well. "Well let's start."
It went exactly how Nico expected. Percy (who was standing behind Nico) had to bend forward to spit in the basin, and instead of pushing him out of the way, he just leaned forward, smashing Nico flat against the marble counter. "Ack! Prrrrc!" He managed to scream with a toothbrush in his mouth.
"Srry!" No one could actually speak fluently as of yet. Percy gave Nico a little more space. Frank was next.
He took a step forward, landing him next to Percy, but since Nico was there before, the short boy was squished between Frank and Percy.
"Mmf!" Frank grinned. Bastard! He's doing this on purpose!
Percy grinned too. Him too?!
Finally all three simultaneously spit all the disgusting toothpaste out into the basin and washed their faces. Nico was surprisingly chuckling, as the three walked into the corridor slightly less hungover than before. When they groggily stumbled into the mess hall, all eyes were turned on them. Well actually just six.
Hazel gasped, seeing Nico's shirt. "P-Party animal?! What the heck Nico!" Nico sheepishly grinned. "And Frank! You look... slightly different. Hangover?" The burly kid nodded in response. "What did you guys do?! And why are you all coming out of Percy's cabin?!"
Piper flashed Annabeth a grin and mouthed the word: threesome, which Annabeth then whispered into the ear of a very confused Hazel, only confusing her more.
"Ok. What is a threesome?!"
Piper sighed in defeat. "Nothing... nothing Hazel." Nico flashed her a thankful look. He didn't need his sister shipping him with other guys. "By the way are Jason and Leo with you guys?"
Nico shook his head. "They disappeared last night. We thought they'd be back by now but I guess we're rescuing them from whatever they got themselves into." He stuffed a dark-colored pancake into his mouth right after he finished saying this. He had a thing for black food, even more than Percy's thing for blue food.
Percy was the most worried of all. "Oh gods what if they're hurt? Or worse... dea—"
"Don't say it!" Nico managed to stop him over his mouthful of black pancake. "I already said it. They can protect themselves, we just gotta find them."
"Look who's Mr. Optimism now?" Annabeth flashed a grin at Nico, who scowled. "Ooh and a party animal?"
Rather than scowling more, Nico broke into a maniacal grin. "Ya better believe it." Piper started fanning herself and muttered something along the lines of: so sexy.
"Well... unexpected responses... I guess we'd better go look for them?" Percy cut in before his girlfriend and bestie could get into dirty jokes. Nico nodded, gravely. "Be on deck when you're ready."
Jason
They had taken turns resting. Leo would sleep for an hour, then Jason, and so on. It was easy to support the scrawny son of Hephaestus when he slept. At the moment, they had both rested up to the point where they actually felt decently energetic.
Of course, that was exactly when the centaur opened the door and dragged the two out. (Literally dragged... on the ground.) He squeezed Leo's wrists, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Stop! You're hurting him!" Jason tried to pry the hand off of his friend's bony arm, but centaurs have an iron grip.
"Oh this is nothing compared to what you're to face." The two demigods locked eyes, both equally terrified for their lives and each other's.
They were brought into a large arena. A coliseum of sorts. There were monsters all around, and they had been thrown in the South gate. As soon as they skidded to a stop, Jason scrambled over to Leo.
"You ok?!"
"I've been worse. Help?" The son of Jupiter gladly helped him to his feet and they stood together, shoulder to shoulder to face whatever their fate was.
The north gate rose slowly and Jason gulped. It wasn't like him to be afraid, but amphitheatres brought it out. Out of the gate, walked a huge giant. Alcyoneus to be precise.
Fear took him. We can't defeat a frikkin giant without a god! Then a stentorian voice shook the earth. "THE FIRST ROUND! SURVIVE FOR TEN MINUTES AGAINST THE MIGHTY" Thanks, I need to be reminded. "THE POWERFUL ALCYONEUS!"
Leo was trembling with fear.
"OI! I'LL BEAT YOU TO A PULP! WITH MY BARE FISTS! AHAHAHA!"
The giant has armor. Imperial gold. The demigods only have combat boots (useful), leather jackets (why not), a coin-sword (yay!), and a belt (yay again!). Thankfully they were given some gleaming armor as well. Jason's fit perfectly. Unfortunately since both sets were the same size, Leo's was far too large for his chest, but he managed. He kept the toolbelt tight around his thin waist for a weapon.
BEEP!
Alcyoneus immediately charged at the duo, causing both to roll to their right. They immediately took off as fast as their feet could carry them. Survive. They were alive.
Leo shot balls of fire as he ran, but they only made their pursuer angrier. Jason had an idea. He wrapped his arms around Leo's chest and pushed off like a rocket into the sky. Leo sighed.
"Oh thanks man... probably just saved my hide."
"I can't keep this up for ten minutes. He'll kill us. We need a battle plan."
"Ok I got it. I can give you support with guns and fire, but as you know I'm weak, so I need you to protect me physically from combat. Just promise you won't get too hurt."
Jason nodded. "I'll keep you safe."
The son of Jupiter lowered them to the ground slowly, and they had to flee to avoid Alcyoneus's instantaneous charge.
"Jason! HELP!" Leo had been caught somehow. He was desperately fighting with fire for his life, and dodging attacks, but he was cornered.
"LEO!" Jason flew to his rescue and used the winds to blow him away to safety. He used Ivlius in sword form to hold off the giant, but he was losing.
That is, until Leo shot a huge, consistent ray of flames at his attacker. Jason ran back and regrouped with the fire user. They exchanged grateful nods, and continued to evade their pursuer.
They actually managed to keep each other safe for about 6 minutes, but then everything went wrong. The giant caught Leo again. Leo tried to burn his way out of the grip which was starting to squeeze his ribs. The only thing that happened as a result is Leo's shirt getting burnt, and Jason getting terrified for his friend's health.
Jason ran toward the giant, hoping to save Leo. He jumped up like a spring, blasting upward like a bird. He wrapped his arms around Leo.
"Hold still! I'm getting you out of here!" He heard a crunch. Oh gods, Leo's ribs are cracking.
Leo let out a heart rending scream. "JASON!" Jason on the other hand felt like crying. If he failed his friend now, he could die. He used all his power to summon lightning into the sky. A storm whirled.
"Leo! Do you have enough strength for some flames?"
Leo screamed again in agony. "I'll try—AHHH!" Jason choked down a sob as he brought down lightning on the huge giant, as Leo simultaneously burst into flames. Both attacks (if they had not been expertly controlled) could have killed both demigods.
Alcyoneus dropped Leo, cueing Jason in to grab him and slow their fall greatly. As soon as they touched the ground, Leo collapsed on Jason. He wrapped his arms around Jason's neck for support.
"Ahh..." Jason nearly forgot. Nearly.
"How do you feel? It isn't too bad is it? Oh gods..." Jason was more worried than ever, holding Leo upright and keeping him erect.
"I guess it is... but don't worry for me. He's charging again." And he was. At Jason, who was too busy holding up Leo to run for his life, like he would have if he was the only one involved. But there was Leo. And he couldn't leave him behind.
"I'm not leaving you Leo." Oh gods we're dead. He shut his eyes and held Leo tight, preparing for the pain. But it never came. He opened his eyes. Alcyoneus had stopped his punch, but he didn't look happy about it.
"IF THIS WASN'T A SURVIVAL MATCH, BOTH OF YOU WOULD BE DEAD NOW! PESKY DEMIGODS!" Jason smiled. Then he laughed. He couldn't believe it.
"We're saved Leo! We're saved!" Leo weakly chuckled.
"Idiot. Should have left me. You got lucky this time."
"Never." Leo sighed in defeat.
"Alright. I guess I might as well let you play hero if it results in my welfare." Leo weakly hobbled at Jason's side. The South gate was opened again, and they walked back to their "cell" with no help from the lovely centaur. Once they reached, Leo collapsed. Jason caught him before his head could hit the hard stone floor.
"Careful!" He picked Leo up, then sat down in the corner, lowering Leo so he was leaning his back mostly against the wall, but partially on Jason's chest. "There. Better?"
"A little I guess."
There was a little ambrosia in one corner. Thank Jupiter... we both need that. Jason leaned over and picked up the six cubes.
"Here Leo open your mouth." Leo complied. "Found some ambrosia." Leo ate 3 cubes, but shook his head when Jason tried to feed him more.
"Jay. You need it just as much as I do. I won't heal up at the cost of your health." Jason tried to argue, but Leo stopped it there. "No. Jason you can't sacrifice everything for me."
"But..."
"No." Jason reluctantly ate the remaining three cubes of ambrosia. Instant relief spread through his body.
"You needed it more than I did." Leo put both hands up.
"Ok ok I give up Jason." Jason smirked.
"I win."
Ok that was kinda a fluffy chapter. Lots of overprotectiveness from Jason. Nico and all of them are going to be the focus of the next Chapter.
Thanks for reading! Please review for free cyber donuts! Well see you guys next chapter.
