Annabeth Chase
Annabeth woke up, submerged in a thick clear, and oily fluid, she had a mask strapped tightly to her face. Annabeth's eyes snapped open and closed them again. It was bright, very bright, and bubbles rose around her. After a few moments, she realized she lying in one of those vertical bacta tanks. The fluid was almost buoyancy neutral, and so she only rested very lightly on the gel-cushioned mat under her. The first time many people woke up in them they had minor panic attacks, not realizing where they were. Hence part of Annabeth's training had involved waking up in them multiple times to get used to the off-putting sensation.
Someone had undressed her... She realized. Then, she was clearly in a medical facility. Now all she wore was a set of shorts with a buoyancy belt that kept her from drifting around in the tank. Her left arm was in a titanium bar brace.
What had happened?
She pressed her hands against the tank's outer wall and finally managed to make out the room outside. It was clearly a medical facility of some sort, and a figure in white robes was standing outside, looking down at a data pad of some sort.
Slowly memories began to settle in. Being tortured, escaping, and then Perseus Jackson...
She must have collapsed again at some point.
Annabeth tentatively knocked on the glass wall and the figure looked up and waved at her before stepping forward to a control lectern and typing something in. Suddenly the tank's fluid began to drain and once it had, the lid swung open and allowed her to sit up.
Annabeth pulled the mask from her face and breathed deeply. "Welcome back, Agent Chase," the figure greeted her and Annabeth looked around to realize that the figure was a boy, no older than fourteen, and dressed in loose white robes. He was holding a towel out to her. She was in a large room, with a round window at the far side. A dozen other bacta tanks, most of them empty, stood along the wall.
"Where am I?" she asked.
She was half naked, and the boy didn't even batt an eye, only meeting her eyes with light ease. It wasn't the politely looking away kind of not looking, more it made no difference to him kind of looking. She considered trying to cover herself for a moment but decided not to embarrass herself.
This boy seemed like he was supposed to be there, and was perfectly at ease, so she decided she was too.
"Who are you?"
The boy smiled patiently. "You are in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and my name is Clovis. I am a Padawan in the Jedi Order and a student in the halls of healing. You suffered TBI after an explosion complicated by a Cerebral edema and have been in an artificial coma for four days, and simply unconscious for the past two. Additionally, you also have a hairline fracture on your left humerus."
"Almost a week?" Annabeth complained and began to climb out of the bacta tank.
Clovis helped her with gentle hands and then she accepted the towel and wrapped it around herself.
"Why am I here?" she asked. "Other hospitals were closer."
Clovis smiled gently. "We have more experience with injuries caused by the Sith," he explained apologetically.
"What are you talking about?" Annabeth asked, trying to rub the oily liquid out of her hair.
"It is why you fainted. The force lighting, we believe the after effects are what caused you to faint. An overload of your nervous system, so to say. You had a seizure. We only discovered your TBI during closer examination, and are treating you for it. It is a common injury among the members of our order who seek our aid here."
Annabeth sighed deeply. "Can I leave?" she asked.
"At any time, you are no prisoner Annabeth Chase. Though I would urge you to not discharge yourself from our care quite so earlier. My Master should be here soon, any further questions you might have I urge you to ask him," he said. "I welcome you to clean up if you are feeling up to it. A towel and garments will be waiting for you when you are done. If you need help, you only need to call."
Clovis showed her to a shower stall where Annabeth washed off the bacta fluids. As she enjoyed the warm water, running down her worn-out body, she realized her exhausted she still felt. Even standing was an issue, her muscles screaming in protest. She was also starting to feel nauseous, and she began to feel slightly dizzy. Perhaps, she thought. Clovis was right and she wasn't quite ready to be discharged.
Annabeth turned off the water, and as Clovis had promised, a clean towel and pristine white hospital gown awaited her.
"Hello?" she called out, realizing that getting dressed with one arm was easier said than done. She was also starting to get seriously dizzy and didn't think she would be standing too much longer.
"Annabeth?" a familiar voice answered.
"Thalia?" she asked.
"Yes," came the reply. "You need help in there? Clovis said you might."
"Maybe," she admitted, and a moment later the Jedi entered the small cabin, which she was sure had been put up for the benefit of none Jedi.
With Thalia's help she managed to slip into the hospital gown without too much hassle, and then, not trusting her legs entirely, let her friend lead her to one of the wards. Robed and hooded Jedi passed her in the hallway. It was a large space, with a dozen or so beds, the majority of which remained empty. It occurred to Annabeth, that these were kept ready for a possible rapid influx of patients.
As such there was a blend between high-tech-looking medical equipment and distinctly more Jedi stuff.
She knew that in mass casualty events the Jedi Temple, a highly secure facility, was marked as a medical facility with a capacity of two hundred beds and eight surgical features on short notice, with multiple times that capacity being able to be brought online within hours. She knew that because in a pinch the Jedi temple was the closest level-one trauma center to the Senate building and had always kept this piece of information in the back of her mind.
She looked around. Most of the patients were unmistakably Jedi. Some looked like they were recovering from wounds dealt on the front line, some seemed fresher, perhaps from the raid against the Sith force a few days earlier. Others she could not quite gauge.
An ancient-looking Jedi, sitting cross-legged on one of the beds as she received fluids over an IV port,
glared at them as they entered.
"What kind of hair due is that?" she snapped at Thalia, her voice as crisp and sharp as a razor. "You look like a spice addict!"
"I will rectify it, Battlemaster Shayso," Thalia replied with an unusual amount of haste.
"See that you do, young lady," the old lady replied sternly. "The Jedi these days..." she muttered under her breath.
To her surprise Thalia said nothing, only giving her another warning look, as she guided her over to one of the free beds close to what looked like an office. On the bed, she noticed, lay her holstered blaster with her duty belt wrapped around it.
"You guys just left it lying around here?" Annabeth asked skeptically.
"No one here has much use for a blaster," Thalia argued as Annabeth picked the belt up and put it on the bedside table before gratefully sitting down on the mattress.
Annabeth was about to argue when Clovis emerged from a door, followed by another older Jedi in his late twenties, dressed in white robes. This Jedi had golden blond curly hair, bright blue eyes, and was undeniably handsome. "Welcome back, Agent," he greeted her cheerfully. "My name is Dr. Will Solace, and I am the master of the Halls of Healing here on Coruscant," he introduced himself, pulling out a datapad from his robes. "How are you feeling?"
"Not too good," Annabeth admitted. "A bit dizzy, some nausea," she summarized.
"I'd like to prescribe some bedrest for today and keep you here for another day or two for observation," Will announced brightly. "After that, we'll see. By the way, your family is hoping for a call from you..."
"My family?" Annabeth blurted out. "They know I'm here?"
"Obviously, your employer would contact next of kin..."
"Well, that and..." Annabeth noticed the glare Thalia gave Will, silencing him. She felt slightly insulted that Thalia would even attempt to intervene. "Well, anyway, I'll be back to check on you soon."
Annabeth planned to find out what Will was keeping from her, but as an experienced interrogator, she knew it was better to wait and find out eventually.
"So, the operation was a complete disaster," Annabeth said casually, leaning back onto the mattress. "How are they trying to spin this clusterfuck? I imagine the media is having a field day right about now."
"Well," Thalia admitted, "According to the media, it was a complete success."
"How so?" Annabeth asked, holding back the flood of questions she had for the moment.
"Well," Thalia explained, "The higher-ups are presenting it as a resounding success. They're calling it a heroic hostage rescue operation against vile Imperial spies..."
"What?" Annabeth asked, bewildered.
"...and you are the tragic hero as well. The Chancellor even mentioned you by name. Senator Organa is advocating for you to receive an Order of Merit."
All pretense of a good mood faded from Annabeth's face, and Thalia offered her a sympathetic but pained smile. "According to the official statement, you were investigating a series of abductions and got captured during the investigation. Afterward, the renowned Havoc Squad and a group of Jedi Knights rescued all of you. Some of the other hostages spoke to the press, singing your praises."
"And what part are you not telling me?" Annabeth asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Well," Thalia continued, "A bunch of battle pictures were released to the public to impress the masses, and you're visible in a few of them. In fact, you made the front page of several newspapers, including Coruscant Business and Core World Bard."
Annabeth froze, and Thalia began swiping on her pad.
"Are you telling me that millions of people now know what I look like?" she asked incredulously.
"No," Thalia corrected, "More like billions. Your office is flooded with fan mail, and you even received hundreds of marriage proposals, last I checked. As for the pictures..."
Annabeth grabbed the pad from Thalia's hand and found herself looking at images from a commando's helmet cam. They showed intense enemy fire and Artemis wielding her lightsaber in combat. There were many more pictures, telling the story of an epic battle, and the images were undeniably well chosen.
Then she found the one that made her jaw drop. "They released this?" Annabeth asked, dumbfounded, and Thalia nodded, her teeth visibly clenched.
It was a picture of her, apparently after she had collapsed, taken from one of the commando's helmet cameras. It showed Percy Jackson carrying her towards the camera bridal style, her limp body in his arms, head hanging, and arm dangling lifelessly. The Jedi's gaze was lowered in a grim manner as he carried her, his considerable bulk and size seeming, even more, imposing in his armor.
"You should read some of the comments," Thalia offered helpfully.
"This has to be a damn joke, right?" Annabeth exclaimed.
"According to Public Relations both of you look like fucking models, so they just had to publish it. Looks like it worked,..."
"So, he is the fucking hero now?" Annabeth demanded. "His asset got me into this mess in the first place."
"No," Thalia said helpfully, opening one of the comments. "According to TyreanShant0225 on Kuat, he is Master BeMyBabyDaddy. The disturbing part is she is like what, fifteen? Should have seen his face when I showed him."
It dawned on Annabeth that Thalia considered this entire affair to be beyond hilarious.
Annabeth buried her face in her hands, imagining how far that picture would go. "What do they call me?"
"Bunch of guy jokes on how they would love to be arrested by you, the usual stuff," Thalia said. "And a lot of stuff is way across the line. If it makes you feel better, Percy isn't happy either."
Annabeth looked up and glared at Thalia. "He looks like some god of war," Annabeth almost yelled. "I look like some damsel in distress. This is probably seriously going to impact my life." Annabeth was so furious that she even forgot about all her questions concerning her case and what had really happened. "They didn't mention my name, did they?" Annabeth asked.
"Oh yes," Thalia confirmed. "Though Percy isn't introduced... Before you continue raging, and I understand if you want to, I do have a few questions of my own, concerning what happened. We think we have everything pieced together but could use your help in filling in some of the blanks.
"For one, did you know that Senator Dare is a traitor?" Annabeth said, suddenly remembering.
Thalia paused for a very long moment. "Continue please."
Stull fuming Annabeth finally told the tale, leaving nothing out, even the more tasteless things, like what Atlas had planned for her. It served to feed the psychological profile the Republic undoubtedly had on him. Finally, she fell silent when she reached the part where her memory blacked out and turned an inquisitive gaze at the Jedi. "So? Now comes the part where I find out where the fuck Ciana Naminte is. All this happened because I was looking for her."
Truth be told, now that everything had blown up in her face, she couldn't care less about the damned Twi'lek. But she was too experienced of an investigator to pass up the opportunity to interview someone who didn't realize she was being interrogated.
"Oh, who?" Thalia asked. "Oh yeah, the Twi'lek. No idea, somewhere off to a new life in the Mid Rim. Turns out she hasn't been since she first escaped your custody. Though her face flagging the system is what alerted Percy and by extension us that something was awry."
"How..." Annabeth began and closed her mouth, deciding that exactly how a large-scale intelligence operation stuck so well in the system's blind side was at the end of the day a problem four counterintelligence, and not herself.
"Best guess so far is that Darth Atlas knew we were slowly closing in and wanted to bait Percy to go in alone to liquidate him before leaving Coruscant," Thalia explained. "Though we are interrogating a few prisoners."
"I see," Annabeth said, pleased that the topic had gone to her main Jedi problem without her having to drag it there. "And why would a Lord of the Sith care so much about this one Jedi?" Annabeth asked lightly. "Darth Atlas seems to hold a personal grudge."
"That," Thalia said, "I can answer you. Atlas claims to hate Percy for the simple reason that he struck down his master, DarthDesolouson Yarvin 4. I imagine killing him would give his career a significant boost."
Annabeth took a moment to absorb this piece of information and let it seep into the mental profile she had begun building of Perseus Jackson ever since the first time she had met him. "Good fighter I take it?" Annabeth asked mildly, not really because she cared, but mainly to keep the conversation going while she tried to come up with the next avenue of questions.
"Very good," Thalia confirmed. "And a very potent force wielder as well."
"So, I summarize, feel free to correct me if I am wrong," Annabeth said and raised a finger as she counted down. "First, your cousin was waging a private war against the Sith Empire. Second, this little stunt of his interfered with an operation being conducted by SIS and the Jedi Council," Annabeth continued, raising a second finger. "And third, this interference is directly responsible for the death of multiple republic officers."
"I would not put it like that," Thalia said, visibly squirming.
"Then,..." Annabeth asked, letting the tension she had created deflate with a gentle voice. "Tell me how I should take it."
"Well, he saved your life," Thalia offered helpfully.
"After endangering it by the very cards he played. Not that I am not grateful. Believe me, never have I been so happy to see a Jedi, but still. All this happened because a Jedi Knight went off on his own private little crusade. He even seriously endangered the lives of Ciana Naminte and her lover boy. There will have to be consequences, regardless of how noble his intentions might have been."
Thalia cocked her head skeptically but before she could reply Doctor or Master Will Solace approached. "You were to watch her, not further exert her Grace," he chided, walking up to them, clearly annoyed that Annabeth had gotten involved in a demanding conversation.
"It's fine.." Annabeth began to argue. She would never finish the reply, because the Jedi reached out, the tips of his fingers brushing over her forehead. "Sleep!" he commanded, and before she knew it darkness embraced her.
Only the very fewest ever got to set foot inside the Jedi temple. Being somewhat of an architecture enthusiast herself, and for some reason being allowed to move freely about it, she lost no time in exploring it while not discharged. What struck her was the strange mixture of grand architecture and the simplicity of it. For over an hour, she strolled long dark hallways. She imagined what it must be like to grow up in these dark quiet halls. Her exploration ended when she stumbled across the Jedi archives. Simply the endless rows of storage shelves for data crystals spoke volumes for the truly vast amount of data and knowledge stored within was truly staggering. From what she had heard, this was one of the very oldest intact data centers in the entire galaxy for the Jedi Order were notorious archivists. Someone had once said, if it isn't recorded in the Jedi archives, it never happened. After ensuring she was allowed to form an archivist, she sat down and found herself browsing files millennia out. Detailed disciplinary reports about things like some Jedi Padawan that had knocked up his secret fifteen-year-old girlfriend outside the order some two thousand years ago. Or the endless minor insurance cases where Jedi had caused some sort of damage to public and private property as the members of the order did what Jedi did. How the Jedi Order even mannaged to get insurance at this point, was truly beyond her. When the name Perseus Jackson popped up on one of the insurance claims, she suddenly had an idea. As she sat at one of the terminals she suddenly had an idea and typed Perseus Jackson into the search bar and was rewarded with a long list of files. Everything from expense reports, mission reports, and finally mainly from a few years back a considerable amount of reprimands. From what Annabeth could tell, Perseus Jackson was by Jedi standards at least something of a troublemaker.
"Still trying to arrest my dear cousin," Thalia asked, slipping into the chair next to hers. She had not heard the Jedi approaching.
"Once an investigator, always an investigator," Annabeth replied apologetically and turned to face the Jedi, plastering a smile onto her face.
"You truly are awfully stubborn," Thalia replied.
Annabeth spread her hands innocently. "It is what I get paid for."
Thalia sighed. "Would you rather meet him? It might be a more productive use of your time?" she asked.
Annabeth beamed at Thalia. "Very much so." To underline her point, she pulled her cuffs from her belt and spun them around her index finger.
Thalia only rolled her eyes. "Well come with me."
She was led through long dark halls, as they walked passing more robed figures. What struck her to some extent was how quiet it was. Where the Jedi talked among each other, they talked in low, hushed voices. They also spared Annabeth, a clear and obvious outsider, very little attention.
Finally, they entered a much brighter and more open chamber. All in all, it looked like a normal gym. With most of the large chamber being dedicated to weights, machines, and treadmills. Jedi of all ages were pumping iron, or doing cardio. From children no older than ten to much more senior members.
"By the way," Annabeth asked. "What happened to Senator Dare?"
Thalia grinned. "Oh, he's under observation. His communications tapped, and so on. We were actually waiting for you to get discharged to do the honors on this one."
Annabeth, realizing she was bribed, raised an eyebrow. "Waiting for me, huh. This has nothing to do with the powers to be being afraid that I will sue their asses for reckless endangerment?" she asked.
"Probably," Thalia agreed. "The daughter of one of your fellow officers already filed a civil suit for wrongful death..."
They left the gym, headed through another hallway, and stepped into what looked a lot like an arena, with half a dozen rows of tiered benches surrounding an oval training area.
In the center were for people, one was unmistakably Perseus Jackson. He wasn't quite the giant her memories made him out to be, but he was certainly tall, and the black short-sleeved bodysuit showed off a muscular body and even more muscular legs. It was the body of a professional athlete.
The other three teens, two girls and one male whom Annabeth did not recognize. One of the girls, a rutian Twi'lek, was hammering punches and kicks at Perseus who was holding two punching backs. The girl was fast, crazy fast in fact. Every few seconds or so Perseus would swipe at her with the bags, only to have the girl dart under his counters before smoothly reengaging him.
"Oh, yeah. Forgot, he's getting them up to scratch," Thalia muttered. "They're rotating to the front line next week."
"Those are kids," Annabeth said quietly.
"Those are Jedi," Thalia replied quietly.
Just as the Twi'lek girl snapped up her leg, well above the height of her own head, aiming for Perseus's face only to have the leg she was standing on kicked out from under her, sending her crashing to the ground.
"Fuck!" the girl groaned in frustration.
"Pull a stunt like that in a real fight and you are dead," Perseus said grimly and held out a hand. The girl accepted and let the trainer pull her to her feet.
"Sorry," the girl replied, grinning up at the older Jedi sheepishly.
"Don't apologize, I do not wish to attend your funeral so be better," he simply replied and raised the punching bags again.
"Master," the boy warned as they approached from behind. He turned around and his face lit up in a genuine smile as he approached.
"Thalia, to what do I owe the pleasure? And Ms Chase, it is good to see you back on your feet," he greeted them.
Annabeth stopped in front of the Jedi and looked up at him without even the slightest trace of a smile.
"I have been looking for you, Mr Jackson."
So, here you go. Do enjoy and leave Reviews. Would you like a Percy point of view next?
HJL over and out.