Happy thirty-first chapter! This is out a tad late because I was on vacation! Just a reminder, I still do reply to private messages and reviews while on vacation, but I don't write as much. Nevertheless, I still wrote a little bit of this on vacation because I did have some wiggle room. Anyways, enough about me! The reviews: MarsUltor12- Thanks for your thoughts on Terminus! As you will see, I incorporated what I told you about in this story. Also, thank you for complimenting my "story arc." That makes me incredibly happy. Next, iNeptune- Thanks for your input on Reyna and Percy! I will see what I can do about that injury, but I hope you won't be too disappointed if I don't incorporate that. I will try my best, though! (Also, I did have a guest add a review in Spanish. I did translate it, and it was super nice!) Anyways, the poll is now CLOSED. Preyna was the winner. Again, if you would like a detailed description of the results for that, PM me. Ok, let's finally get on with the update! (Disclaimer: I don't own.)
Percy's POV
Percy arose early in the morning, which was quite rare for him. He never got up earlier than needed unless he had to. Well, he did kind of have to in this particular situation, though he wished he hadn't.
He was going to the infirmary to get his back "injury" looked at. The healers had told Percy to show up at 5:30 before the infirmary go too busy. As busy as Camp Jupiter's infirmary normally did, anyhow. (Which honestly wasn't that busy). Percy had a feeling that the healers were simply trying to torture him, making him get up before even the sun was fully awake. Not even the mess hall was open, which, by Percy's standards, was far too early to be up and at 'em. Nevertheless, Percy headed to the infirmary.
Once Percy arrived, he saw two healers talking. All the other healers must have been sleeping, just like any normal teenager would be doing at this wee hour. He approached them and said, "Uh, hey. I'm supposed to be here to get my back looked at."
The head healer, Lucas, turned to Percy. "Oh, praetor Jackson! We didn't see you coming," he began. "Yes, we just want to check up on your bruise."
A simple bruise, Percy thought. There's no need to make such a fuss over it. There's especially no need to make me wake up this early for it.
The two healers brought him inside a small room. Percy took off his shirt and sat on a cot. The second healer, a girl he recognized as Liz, daughter of Asclepius, unwrapped his bandages and eyed his bruise, occasionally poking it. This made Percy's back hurt even worse. To him, it seemed as if his bruise had grown in size, but that could've just been from the pain-inducing prodding. Meanwhile, Lucas grabbed another tube of the ointment needed for Percy's blemish. When he had fetched it, Lucas walked over to the side of the cot, near Liz.
When Lucas saw Percy's bruise, he frowned. Another poke. Percy winced. "Does that hurt?" Lucas asked.
Percy nodded. In truth, he had wanted to answer, "you're darn right it hurt! Now stop touching my back!" At any rate, he had kept his mouth shut.
"Here," Lucas said, handing the ointment to Liz. "Put this on. I might have something else."
"You sure?" Liz asked. She gestured at Percy's back and made a face.
"Uh, what's up with my back?" Percy asked. He tried to look behind him in vain. If only human necks worked that way.
"Um, hold on, praetor," Lucas said. He gestured for Liz to join him on the other side of the room.
"His bruise has nearly doubled in size!" Liz whispered frantically to Lucas, gesturing wildly at their patient. Little did they know that Percy could hear them just fine.
"I can see that!" exclaimed Lucas. "Let's not worry too much about this. It's just a bruise."
"A bruise that should have left overnight!" Liz replied, fingering a strand of light-brown hair that had come loose from her ponytail.
Lucas shook his head. "I know, but..." he sighed. "Maybe something was wrong with Terminus when he hit Percy."
"Well, of course, there was something wrong with him!" Liz exclaimed, trying to keep her voice down. "He was possessed, or something."
"Yes, yes," Lucas replied irritably. "I mean, maybe he had something to make this bruise especially big."
"You know what?" Liz said, rubbing her temples. "Let's just apply more ointment and rebandage the wound. It's just a bruise, anyway. What harm can it do?"
Lucas seemed to give in. "You're right, Liz. Let's go back."
The two returned to the cot while Percy tried to act like he hadn't heard a word they had said. "Well, praetor," Lucas said. "You're bruise has doubled in size."
Big surprise, Percy thought.
"Although," Liz added cheerily. "With a little more ointment and Ambrosia, it should heal just fine."
Percy nodded gratefully, though Liz's statement completely countered everything that she and Lucas had just "whispered."
Liz and Lucas got to work reapplying Percy's ointment and bandages, while Percy thought about what they had said. Had Terminus purposely tried to make Percy's bruise extra big, or possibly break his back altogether? Percy supposed that he had reason to think he was lucky. At least his back wasn't broken, right? Right...
Same POV
Once Percy had the OK to leave the infirmary, he headed to the mess hall. It was about 6:00 AM now, so the mess hall was open, thank the gods. All that sitting and listening to two healers whispering could make a guy hungry for blue food.
Percy was unsurprisingly almost alone. Only four other early risers were there, awaiting food. Sure enough, five aurae appeared, giving each demigod some food. Percy's of course, was blue food. Blue pancakes to be precise. Blue food was brain food.
At about 6:30 was when more campers showed up at the mess hall. That was what Percy had observed, anyway. To be frank, Percy was slightly surprised that Reyna hadn't shown up yet. She was usually an early riser. Annabeth, too. Either that or Percy was just a late sleeper and he considered anyone that woke up earlier than him an "early riser."
Percy was about to have an aurae come and take his empty plate when none other than Leo Valdez showed up, sliding in next to him.
"You're up early," the son of Hephaestus speculated.
"How observant of you," Percy smiled.
"I know," Leo flashed a proud smile.
"Well, if I had a choice, I wouldn't be up this early," Percy explained. "I had to have my back checked up on."
"Yeah, how's that doing?" Leo asked, pulling a small contraption out of his toolbelt and tinkering with it.
"Apparently, it's grown," Percy sighed, rubbing his back. "It doesn't hurt too much, though. Kind of."
Leo looked up from his gadget. "Do you think it'll restrict you from doing your praetor stuff?"
Percy shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's not like an arm wound or anything so I guess it depends on the task."
"You could always have an automaton do your work for you," Leo suggested, grinning.
Percy punched his Latino friend in the arm. "Yeah, not gonna happen."
The two boys continued to chat for a couple of minutes longer, arguing over the benefits of automatons versus humans when the rest of the group showed up. Piper, Jason, Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank all sat down at the table. Naturally, being the good friends they were, they asked about his back.
"How's your back?" Annabeth asked, lifting up his shirt. "There's a lot more bandages there than there was yesterday."
Percy nodded grimly. "Yeah. My bruise has doubled in size."
A worried look clouded his friends' faces. "I wonder..." Annabeth started, staring at Percy's bandaged back. Percy could almost hear the Athena gears turning in her brain. "You know what? Never mind," Annabeth concluded. She kissed Percy on the cheek, her lips soft. "You'll heal. I'm sure."
Percy gave her a look that read, Is that all?
Annabeth responded with her eyes. I'll tell you later.
Out loud, Annabeth said, "Oh look. Reyna's here."
Reyna's POV
Reyna would've gone over to see how Percy was doing, but she decided that the best course of action was to stay away from that area of the mess hall. Annabeth had an intimidating look in her stormy gray eyes, and she was holding onto Percy's hand in a way that said, This is my man. Back off.
Of course, Annabeth had reason to look this way. Percy had turned around to see Reyna approaching a bit too eagerly. Subtle was not necessarily in the son of Poseidon's vocabulary, though. Nevertheless, Annabeth saw this as a threat. A threat to her relationship with Percy. Reyna usually didn't see jealous girlfriends as a threat, but Annabeth was a special case. Reyna didn't intend to start a huge argument between the daughters of two powerful war goddesses.
Percy seemed to sense Annabeth's tenseness and he smiled apologetically at Reyna before turning to the daughter of Athena and giving her a long kiss on the lips as if to prove his loyalty to her. Reyna admittedly felt jealous. She loved his kisses, and of course, Annabeth did too.
Reyna proceeded on to her usual spot, trying to forget about Annabeth's death stare and the way Percy kissed Annabeth. He definitely looked like he meant it. Did it look like Percy meant it when he kissed Reyna? Ugh, jealousy was nasty.
The main question that stirred in Reyna's mind, however, was which girl he truly wanted to be with. Most likely Annabeth, since he hadn't broken up with her yet. But Reyna couldn't shake the feeling that he deeply wanted to be with her as well. Romantically, anyways. Why else would he spend so much time with Reyna? And why else would he kiss her? Friends don't kiss. On the other hand, Percy was sending mixed signals to both girls. Annabeth was jealous of Reyna, most likely because she suspect something, and Reyna was jealous. This was going to be a mess.
Same POV
Reyna headed to the Principia right after breakfast, though not before checking on the probatios and their training. She didn't know how this specific batch of recruits would survive in the legion, but at least they were making strides. Truth be told, there was a lot of work left to do with this group.
Reyna's main goal at the Principia was to possibly find something that might give the legion intel on Terminus, or what had possessed him. It might have been an eidolon, like those that affected Reese and Saul, but did those affect gods? Only one way to find out: research.
The legion had plenty of records on ancient Roman and Greek monsters, entities, and demons, so Reyna was sure to find something that might give her intel on this matter. Maybe. Possibly...
She walked into the Principia nodding to the guards on duty as she went. They nodded back as a show of respect. Once Reyna was inside, she noticed that someone had beaten her to her studies. Jason Grace was sitting around the table in the center of the room, looking over old scrolls.
"Jason," Reyna said in surprise. "I didn't see you leave the mess hall before me."
"Yeah, I slipped out," Jason said, turning to see her. "I see we had the same idea."
"Yes, I suppose we did. Assuming you're here to investigate eidolons."
Jason shrugged. "I just wanted more information on what happened to Terminus. I guess eidolons would make sense, though." He turned back to the scrolls.
"Yeah, but do they affect gods?" Reyna replied, slipping into the chair next to Jason. She was glad that they had cleared the air between them, or else this would've been a really awkward move. Of course, Reyna couldn't deny that she still had the smallest feelings for Jason; feelings like that don't go away that easily. But at least Jason didn't seem uncomfortable and that was good enough for her at the moment.
Reyna eyed the scrolls. They were all written in Latin which wasn't a problem for either demigod. The perk of being born of Roman gods was that their brains were hard-wired for Latin.
"Have you found anything yet?" Reyna asked, pulling her cloak around her shoulders. Man, it's cold in here this morning.
Jason sighed and shook his head. "Nothing of importance," he said. "There's various stuff about eidolons on here. Even some stuff about lemures, the Roman equivalent of eidolons. But now that you mention it, there's nothing about if they affect immortal beings or not."
"Does it say anything about how to stop eidolons?" Reyna asked, skimming through the ancient writing.
"Well, I don't think you can kill them, since they are already dead, technically speaking," Jason explained. "But I'm pretty sure you can persuade them from inhabiting you."
"So, something like charmspeak?" Reyna suggested. "
"Maybe," Jason said, his face lighting up. "Like Piper! If another eidolon comes to camp, Piper can charmspeak them out!"
The way Jason's eyes lit up when he spoke of his girlfriend made Reyna feel jealous yet again. I thought I was over this guy! What is wrong with me...?
"Yes, that could work," Reyna said. "We would just have to find the eidolon immediately-"
Reyna's words were cut short by Percy barging into the Principia. "Reyna, I-" he exclaimed, stopping when he saw Jason. "Jason! Hi!" He finished, trying to act nonchalant as he sat on Reyna's right. Jason bore a confused expression. Reyna gave Percy a questioning look. Percy shook his head and blushed. Reyna would just have to figure it out later.
"So..." Percy said, speaking up again. "What are we looking at?"
Jason snapped back to reality. "Oh yeah. We were just looking at these writings on eidolons. We're trying to figure out if they can inhabit gods, and if that was the reason for Terminus attacking you."
Percy pulled one scroll towards him. "Oh, Latin. You guys will have to do most of the reading because I'm not fluent in Latin. I know a lot, but I'm far from fluent."
"That's alright," Reyna said. "There's not much on these scrolls anyways. They don't tell us much more than how to stop them."
"Well, that's a start," Percy said, gesturing for them to go on.
Jason explained how eidolons could possibly be defeated by charmspeak and that if another one showed up, Piper could possibly coax it out of its mortal vessel.
"Hey, now we have a defense against eidolons," Percy said. "That's good! Oh, and if Terminus shows up again and goes all projectile mode, we just have to get Piper there and see if she can talk an eidolon out of him."
"And if it doesn't work?" Reyna asked skeptically. "What if Terminus doesn't have an eidolon or lemure possessing him?"
Percy shrugged. "Well, then he's probably in some conspiracy with the giants and we might all be doomed. But on the bright side, that's one less eidolon to worry about!"
Reyna swatted at Percy's arm. Jason snorted. Clearly, Reyna was more mature than both of these boys.
"Percy, you're a praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. You need to take this seriously. People could get hurt. Someone already has," Reyna chastised, gesturing to Percy and his bruise. How was his bruise, anyway? She would have to ask later.
Percy frowned. "Right, sorry. A real idea... Hey, what about my Octavian theory? Maybe Octavian could be influencing Terminus. You know as much as I do how much our augur hates me and the rest of the Greeks."
Reyna shook her head, glancing at Jason. The blond simply shrugged. Reyna turned back to Percy. "That's possible, yes, but as I said, I don't think Octavian would take it this far. I know he hates the Greeks, but I think that Terminus is too smart to join Octavian and his cause."
Percy held up his hands in defense. "Just reinforcing a thought, here."
Reyna glanced back at the scrolls again. How could she know what the augur was capable of? No, it didn't seem like Octavian. "Let's just assume for now that our threat is an eidolon. If it's not, then we'll cross that bridge when we get there," Reyna suggested, her eyes still fixed on the ancient writing. As if staring at the words would bring out a new meaning to them.
Jason exhaled. "Alright," he said, standing. "Sounds good."
Percy stood up as well. "I don't have any better ideas."
"Just remember not to make the legionnaires worry. There's already enough chaos in the camp," Reyna pointed out.
"Of course," the two boys said simultaneously.
"Alright, you two," Reyna rolled her eyes. "Is there any more research you think is vital we conduct?"
Jason and Percy shook their heads after a short hesitation. "Well, praetors, this meeting is adjourned."
"Right," Jason said, turning around. Percy followed.
Reyna laughed confusedly. She would never understand boys.
Reyna started cleaning up the scrolls, rolling them up so she could put them back in their place when she heard someone clearing their throat behind her. She jumped, shocked, but wasn't, however, surprised at the person standing there. Percy, of course. Who else would it be?
"Are you gonna tell me what you wanted to say earlier when you ran in yelling?" Reyna asked, smirking. She straightened up, realizing that she was far too close to Percy. There was only a couple of inches of space between the two praetors.
"Uh, yeah," Percy said, backing up only an inch. The two were still very close. His green eyes stared deep into hers. His lips looked enticing. Reyna tried to focus on something other than his lips or eyes. His nose, maybe? No, that was just awkward. Reyna motioned for him to continue nonetheless.
"Well, I just wanted to apologize for kissing Annabeth so passionately in front of you."
Reyna raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you apologizing for kissing your own girlfriend? Sorry, but that doesn't make any sense."
Percy shrugged, finally breaking eye contact. He started to rub his neck, a habit that Reyna adored. It told her that Percy was getting self-conscious. Not like Reyna liked to make Percy feel self-conscious, but it was cute. Especially in front of her. "Well, it's just... It's you," Percy explained.
"What about me?" Reyna asked, fully knowing what Percy meant. She just wanted to hear the raven-haired boy say it.
"You're making this difficult," Percy said. Reyna laughed internally. "Well, I just feel bad kissing another girl in front of you when I've kissed you before."
"Oh?" Reyna sputtered out, smiling. "So you think I'm jealous?"
"I don't know, it just doesn't feel right... Wait. Are you jealous?"
"Of course I am!" Reyna exclaimed, throwing up her hands. She covered her mouth after she had said it, though it felt good to get out the truth.
Percy smiled, but it faltered. "This is unfair for you," he said. "I'm sorry."
"Percy, I..." Reyna trailed off. "Look, I am jealous of Annabeth. It's hard to explain, so don't try getting anything else out of me. At least not right now. I'm still figuring out my romantic feelings, alright?"
Percy nodded sympathetically. "I understand. I do. It's still unfair that you have to feel this way because of me. I'll stay away from you if you want."
Reyna hesitated. This is what she had wanted since Venus had appeared to her, wasn't it? Reyna had wished that Percy would stay away from her so that she wouldn't fall in love. She had promised herself that she wouldn't fall in love, so this was the invitation that she should've grabbed immediately. So why did she pause? She supposed that deep down, the thought of never sharing another kiss with Percy Jackson was unbearable. She knew that she would have to face this eventually; never having another romantic exchange with Percy, but now wasn't the time. She couldn't do that to herself. Not yet, anyway. You will have to end this soon, she told herself. Reyna shook away those thoughts and turned back to Percy. She gave him a kiss. A meaningful one, just like the kisses he always gave to her. She broke away before Percy could touch her. She knew that this annoyed him, and it annoyed her too. She loved it when Percy held her, though she knew that this was what she had to do.
"There's your answer," Reyna said. "Do I want you to stay away from me? No way. I couldn't bear it and neither could you."
Percy smiled. "That's for sure," was all he said before Reyna walked out of the Principia.
Well, there you guys go! I hope you liked it because it was super fun to write! In this chapter, Reyna realizes a lot of things, and so does Percy. I might give you guys Percy's POV of that last particular scene in the Principia if you want. Just for fun, you know, so we can see what's going through Percy's head. Reyna admits to a couple of things in this chapter, and this will make even more Preyna possible. (But, there was that little part that I snuck in about Reyna realizing that she will have to deal with leaving Percy eventually, so who knows what that could mean?) Anyway, that's enough clarification. If you have any further questions, concerns, or requests, REVIEW, REVIEW, and REVIEW!