DISCLAIMER: Don't own PJO/HoO. Rick Riordan does.

Chapter 7: It's Not Simply a Misunderstanding

Third Person POV

Riptide suddenly came up alive and kicking in Percy's hands. It slashed at Jason's chest, seemingly having a brain of its own. Just then, a gold blur met Riptide in the middle, forming an X. At that short standoff, all of them could see that Jason held his own with his gladius.

Percy broke the standoff and stabbed Jason, or at least tried to. The son of Jupiter parried the attack.

"Percy!" Jason yelled. "What are you doing?"

Percy did not answer. Instead, he raised his hand—and a stream of water from the nearby window hit Jason.

"Percy! No!" Annabeth came rushing at him, trying to restrain her boyfriend, but Percy simply ducked out of her way.

Jason lay at the stairs leading to the deck. Leo helped him up.

"Jason, lead him up," Leo urged. "I got a stupid idea."

"That idea of yours better be the good kind of stupid," Jason muttered. He glanced behind Leo, and pushed him out of harm's way just as Percy stabbed Riptide forward. The blade sunk next to Jason, which gave him enough time to rush up the stairs.

Annabeth's POV

'You will be challenged. Stay strong.' Annabeth was shaken by Percy's attack. She never would've thought that Percy, the most loyal and trusting one of the seven, will be the 'pawn' of Gaea. (And frankly, Annabeth would rather they might as well fall off the sky of Gaea instead of seeing Percy like that.) And yet, she has observed something the others failed to see.

The other four kept quiet a while ago, not because they were scared and afraid. They were terrified. Annabeth could tell from their body language that they thought that if they make even the tiniest of moves, Percy will come rushing at them, slashing like a fruit ninja and screaming 'GUAAAAAHHHH!' incoherently.

Contrary to their beliefs, Annabeth noted that Percy's eyes were on Jason. Full of malice, yes. But strangely, anger seems to lack in his face. His words were cold and accusing as he told them that he knew that they were plotting against the son of Poseidon, but Annabeth saw the sharp hesitant intake of breath after that.

When Percy blasted Jason with seawater at the foot of the stairs, Annabeth tried to stop Percy, and though he ducked out of the way, she saw him look at her—

'You will be challenged. Stay str—'

'Aphrodite was warning me about somethi—'

'We had a little proble—'

'It might either be about love, beauty, doves, or charmspeaki—'

'Do not listen to her voice... It's Gaea.'

Warnings, advices, Percy, Jason coming up his room, and Wii games. Annabeth shook her head and mentally scolded herself for thinking of Luigi defeating Mario at Rainbow Road at this time. (Though, under different circumstances, she would smile victoriously at that. She'd always rooted for Luigi, instead of Mario.)

The pieces came together... Percy is under the influence of Gaea's charmspeak.

She looked up as Leo came rushing to her, and told her that he had an idea to stop Percy.

After listening to Leo, Annabeth agreed on his mind-blowing plan.

"But first," Annabeth added quickly. "Pull this ship up towards the sky."

Percy's POV

Percy came back to himself just in time to change course and avoid stabbing Jason's torso, then imbedded Riptide in the wood.

Percy knew that Gaea sensed his hesitation, and before he knew it, Gaea spoke once more.

'Go on, pawn. Attack him. He was the one who first plotted against you after all.'

The cloudy haze in his confused mind shrouded his thoughts with Gaea's words.

Percy pulled Riptide out and ran up towards the deck with a determined expression.

Third Person POV

Steps thundered across the deck, and Jason's first thoughts as he smelled the sea were: "Leo's idea is stupid. Leading Percy up here would mean more water for me to splash around in."

Percy reached the top and immediately lumbered after Jason.

Slash. Parry. Stab. Duck.

Jason seemed to realize that Percy is forcing him into defense mode. He did the only thing that is logical; he switched to offensive.

Offensive plus offensive is not a great combination. But Percy and Jason made it look very interesting.

As the two fought, the Greeks and Romans started gathering around, muttering about two leaders fighting. Chiron was among them, and his face is grim…like he knew something most of them didn't. And that something wasn't good at all.

Clarisse La Rue noticed the tension. Though she is a daughter of Ares, she knew that now isn't the time for the camps to be at war. She called for the Apollo campers and ordered them to start playing music fit for a sea voyage to make it look like Percy and Jason are just entertaining them. To be brief, it worked. The muttering stopped and they watched the duo.

Clarisse glanced at Reyna, Camp Jupiter's praetor. Reyna also looked at her. A look of understanding seems to pass between them. They both knew that the fight is not a show.

A/N: ...Hi? [chuckles nervously] How're you guys doin'? c: So sorry for this super late update! We (Nix and I) had to make all of you wait for, like, seven months or so. Sorry! So...now we're both on summer vacation; hopefully we'd be able to give you more chapters until school starts again on June.

Another thing: sorry for this horribly short chapter. I know that after that long wait (or short to no waiting time for recent readers) it's not fair to give you such a short chappie. And *hopefully* you weren't confused with all the constant POV swap. HEADS-UP: there'll still be some of that in the next chapters, so yeah.

Yeeeessh. Hope you liked this one. Should you have some concerns on this story or constructive criticisms or you just want to comment "UPDATE SOON OKAY", put in in your review *down there in the box*. Byeee~