Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. The fuckers won't hand it over!

Waking up the next morning, Percy felt a whole mess of unfamiliar emotions. There was the same comfort that he had felt last time he had woken up with Sara. She was still with him, in her gloriously comfortable bed. Physically, nothing was any different. But they both knew better. Everything was different. They'd had their day of fun, and oh what a day it'd been, but it was time to move on. They couldn't sustain any kind of relationship. If they tried, then they would both be kicked out. For Percy, that would suck, but he would be ok. He would go back to earth, bide his time, and find a way to kill his murderous, divinely powerful brother. But he knew that Sara would be lost without Chaos' army. When they had first gotten to know each other, Percy had told her a lot about his time on Earth, but she had never said a word about what she had done before joining Chaos. He knew that, whatever she'd been doing, wherever she'd been, it hadn't been good. He was willing to respect her decision not to talk about it. But he knew that she would hate to be sent back to wherever she'd come from. And he couldn't be the one to send her there. She deserved so much better. So they had to stop whatever it was that they had going on. It hadn't been going on for very long, but that didn't matter. They cared about each other.

He could tell that she was awake. Neither of them said a word though. They knew that as soon as they did, it would make it real. They would need to say goodbye. He wasn't sure how long they stayed in bed together, just lying there. He didn't care. But their duties forced them to have their conversation. They both had things to do, and neither of them could be late. Sara was the braver of the two, opting to start the conversation.

"Percy... You know what has to happen."

He took a deep breath. He really wished he didn't. But he did.

"Last night was the last time," he said reluctantly.

He felt her nod.

"Yeah. We can't carry on like this. We'd be caught."

"I guess," he said glumly.

"No guessing about it. She would find out at some point."

"Would she?"

"Percy..." she sighed.

"No, seriously," he said, lifting himself up on an elbow to get a better look at her, "Would she?"

Sara turned over so that she was facing him.

"Of course, she would. She's the creator of the universe."

"Doesn't mean she knows everything."

"Well, no, but she would still figure it out."

"Would she?"

"Percy," she said, laughing now, "You can't keep repeating that, and expect it to be your entire argument."

"Can't I?" he said with a grin.

She laughed and swatted his chest. He was glad that he could break the tension slightly.

"No, you can't!"

"Ok, fair enough. How about this for an argument then; I'm a fantastic liar, and I know for a fact that you are too."

She quirked an eyebrow.

"What makes you say that? You've never seen me try."

"You were undercover for 25 years before we met, you have to be at least decent."

She pursed her lips at him and grinned.

"Ok, you got me. I could convince a blind man that he could see."

"Excellent," he grinned.

"But we would need more than the ability to lie well."

"Of course we would. We could set up ground rules for how we behave in public. We could figure out ways to see each other out of everyone's way."

She smiled at him for a long moment, before it turned sad.

"Percy... no matter what we do, it would never work."

"Give me one good reason why it wouldn't."

She sighed.

"For starters, your bunkmates would notice if you go missing every night."

"I can sneak out after they're asleep."

"Then they would notice that you aren't there when they wake up."

"I could sneak back before they're up."

She raised an eyebrow.

"So you're going to wait for them to fall asleep, then sneak over to my place, spend some time with me, and then sneak back before everyone wakes up. How much time would that leave us? Maybe 2 hours per night? And keep in mind, that means that neither of us can sleep at all."

He hesitated. She had a point, and she knew it. No matter how hard they tried, they would never be able to sustain anything meaningful. And he didn't want a purely sexual relationship with Sara. He really liked her. He had fun with her. She was so good to talk to. She was just great to be around. The fact that the sex was mind-shattering, was just a very happy bonus.

"Ok, fine. That wouldn't work. But there has to be something that we can do."

She smiled morosely.

"There isn't," she said simply. There was nothing else to be said.

He leaned back into her bed and sighed.

"I can't believe we have to do this."

"I know. I can't either."

They lay together for a little while longer. But neither of them was under any illusion about what it meant. It was them saying goodbye. Eventually, Percy decided to make the first move. Sara had been the one to initiate the conversation, so he felt it was only fair that he went first that time. He let out a deep sigh, leaned in, and gave Sara one last, long kiss. He tried to make the kiss say everything that he couldn't find the words or the guts to tell her. He wasn't sure how well he succeeded, but she didn't voice any complaints. He got out of her bed, got dressed, and climbed out of her window. As he walked to the training building, he allowed one single tear to drop from his eyes, and no more.

He reached the training building and took the elevator up to his bunk, feeling like something akin to steamed shit. He really didn't feel like training that day. But the downside to being a lowly cadet, was that he didn't exactly get much say in the matter. But maybe sparring could be fun. It might allow him to vent some of his abundant frustration.

As he walked into his bunk, he found that he was going to have an opportunity to vent his frustration much earlier than sparring practice. Everyone in the bunk was standing in a horizontal line before him, as if they'd been waiting for him to arrive. They grinned like sharks the instant he walked in. It was in that moment, that Percy knew he had severely messed up, and was about to be punished brutally. They hadn't said a word to him yet, but their mere presence was enough to tell him everything he needed to know.

There were 9 of them. 6 guys, 3 women. The guys were between 6'2 and 6'6. They were all extremely muscular. Two of the women were 5'10 and the third was 6'1. They were also muscular, but in a more lithe way than the guys. They were all dangerous on their own. All together, they were fucking lethal.

Percy had one advantage over them though. He still had the same bunkmates that he had been training with originally. They'd all been in training for around 15 years, and he had only been training for 10, but he had still been kicking their asses before Chaos had moved him him. He was even better by now. He was certain that he could beat any of them senseless. Maybe even 2 or 3 at a time. But all of them together? That was going to be a challenge.

One of the bigger guys spoke first.

"Well well well. Where have you been all night?" he asked with a shit-eating grin.

"None of your fucking business." Percy replied, hoping to shut this whole thing down before it got out of hand. It didn't work.

"It might be. Depends on what you were doing."

"I wasn't doing shit."

"Weren't you? So, what? You were just staring into space since yesterday?"

Percy didn't say anything.

"I'll ask you again. What were you doing?"

"I stepped out for a cup of coffee. That a crime nowadays?"

"Where's the coffee then?"

"I drank it."

"Where did you get it?"

"What do you care?"

"I might wanna get myself some."

"You're a big boy, you can find your own coffee."

The shit-eating grin intensified.

"You know, we've got ourselves a little theory."

"I'm sure it's fascinating," Percy said sarcastically.

"Oh, it is. You wanna hear it?"

"Nope."

"Tough, you're gonna. You see, we heard that you were doing another psych eval yesterday. Guess the first one concluded you were a psycho freak, or something. Wonder what made him think that? Anyway, we also heard that the one doing the eval was that super hot new instructor. You were gone all day yesterday. You didn't come back last night. You only came back just now."

"That's not a theory," Percy pointed out, trying to sound bored, "You just announced a bunch of stuff that I already knew."

The guy only grinned harder. Any harder, and he was going to swallow his own fucking head. What a shame that would be...

"I'm getting to our theory. First, you wanna deny any of that?"

He couldn't. It was all true and provable.

"No. Amazingly, you got through a whole sentence without being wrong about something. Is that why you're all here? To celebrate?"

The big guy tried to grin a little harder, but Percy could tell it was fake. That last comment had gotten to him, if only slightly. Percy noted that for later. It might come in handy.

"Well, I'm glad you aren't denying any of that, cause we know it's true. Now, I'm wondering, what were you doing between the end of the interview, and getting back just now?"

"First of all, that's still not a theory. It's a fucking question. Learn the difference. Second, what I was doing, is my fucking business. I don't see where you come into it."

"I'm getting to our theory. You're so impatient. You need to take a load off."

"If you don't get out of my way, I'm gonna take a load off on your damn face."

The big guy was grinning for real again, and Percy instantly regretted lashing out. It made him look vulnerable. Like the guy was getting to him. He was.

"You see, our theory is pretty interesting. We figure that you just couldn't resist that hot blonde. We figure she took a shine to you too, Chaos knows why. Maybe all of that talking about your deepest darkest feelings, and all of your mushy gushy emotions, just made her melt. Who knows? But we figure that you two got a little conversation going after the interview. We figure you two talked for a long time until finally, you weren't talking anymore. And now, here you are. Just got home, after spending the night with blondie."

Percy fought to keep his face even. He couldn't afford to let them see how panicked he was. If he did, it was game over. Instead, he nodded slowly and pretended to be impressed.

"Wow. I mean, wow. Did it take all 9 of you to come up with that fantasy?"

"Oh, it's more than just fantasy. It's the truth. It happened. And we're gonna tell Chaos. But first, we're gonna have some fun with you. Seeing as we won't have the chance after we tell her. And who knows? If you don't survive, you don't survive. We'll just tell her that we confronted you about it, you turned hostile, and we had to do what we had to do. We'll be sure to cry at your funeral though. If a rat like you even gets one."

That sent Percy through a loop. They were planning on killing him? The whole situation just got elevated. Suddenly, he was fighting for his life. He made sure they didn't see him worrying. Image and perception are important factors. The more scared you are, the more confident you had to pretend to be.

He faked amusement.

"So, what? You guys are gonna kill me for the crime - the imagined crime, by the way - of having sex?" he said as if he found the very idea to be funny.

The big guy chuckled.

"Nah. We've all wanted to kill you for a long time now. You've just never given us the excuse before."

Well, that was interesting. He decided to go with plan B.

"Yeah, fair enough. But there's just one problem with that plan. Otherwise, it's solid though."

"Oh yeah? And what's that problem then?"

Percy took a step forward. He had very long legs, so the one step covered a decent distance. He was within arms reach of them now.

"You fucking goons aren't gonna do shit to me," he said menacingly.

The big guy grinned just a little bit more.

"Oh, yeah, we are."

Just then, all 9 of them pulled out knives. Maybe, just maybe, if they'd been unarmed he would have had something resembling a chance. But armed? No way. They had knives, and he was totally fucked. He didn't let them see that though.

"Project confidence," he chanted in his head, "Fake it 'till you make it."

"You remember when I used to train with you people? You remember how I used to kick your ass up and down the mat? Back off now, and I'll consider letting you go without a walk down memory lane."

"That was one-on-one. Now it's nine-on-one. I think we'll be ok."

Percy decided to unleash one of the most powerful weapons in any soldier's arsenal. Psychological warfare. In order to win a war, or on a smaller scale, a fight, one had to believe that they could win. They needed to be utterly confident in their superiority. Anything less, was a weapon that could cut deeper than any knife. If Percy could sow doubt in the minds of his new enemies, they'd do half the work for him. He might make it out ok.

"Well, some of you will certainly be ok. I'll admit, I might not be able to take all of you. I'm not arrogant enough to think I could beat all your asses at the same time. But I know I can beat the shit out of a few of you before you take me down. Which of you do you think it'll be? Cause, the way I see it, the first 4 or maybe even 5 of you that come at me, are going to get put down hard. I'm not planning on holding back at all. I may be in for a world of hurt, but so are the first 4 or 5 of you that come for me. So, I'm curious, which of you is going to step up?"

He saw a few of them glance at each other nervously. They knew he had kind of a point. He was just hoping that they didn't realize something that could undermine his entire strategy.

The big guy spoke up again.

"Relax. We all have Chaos' second blessing. No matter what he does, we'll be fine in a few hours."

"Shit," Percy thought.

They all regained some bravado. They saw the logic there. Short of killing them, there was nothing Percy could do without them recovering quickly and completely. He knew that he could break all of their bones, and they would heal in a day or two. He was out of tricks. His last chance was to blindside them somehow.

Percy smirked at them. He took another step toward the big guy. He was the biggest of them all, and he needed to be dealt with first. Maybe if they saw their apparent leader fall, they would reconsider. If not, then it was eight-on-one. Technically an improvement.

Percy kept up the broad smirk. He counted down in his head.

"3."

"Let me tell you, one thing," Percy said aloud.

"2."

The big guy smirked.

"Go on," he drawled.

"1."

(A/N: If you're a bit squeamish, then maybe skip ahead to the next BOLD section.)

Percy slammed his forehead into the big guy's nose as hard as he could. Percy enjoyed headbutting people. The forehead was one of the strongest parts of the human body, and the nose was a great target. It was safer and more powerful than punching. It was a much better opening than a kick, which might leave you off balance. The headbutt did its work. The big guy collapsed like he'd been hit in the face by a bowling ball fired from a canon. It was a great hit.

Percy didn't wait around to see if the blow had scarred the others enough to make them reconsider. He doubted that it would. Instead, he moved on to the next one. It was another of the big guys. He decided to immobilize that one. He went down slightly and crashed his foot into the guy's knee. He made sure to kick it all the way through, so that the guy's knee was at the exact same angle, just backwards. He went down with a horrible screech.

That was as far as he got before the rest of the had reacted. He darted for the next one, one of the women, but he felt a knife slice into his shoulder before he could make it. One of the guys had come up on his right. The slash had been a desperate move because Percy was so fast, but it had still done some minor damage. It was nothing to worry about in the long term, but it was a potential hindrance for the rest of the fight. He didn't let it stop him though. He had to take as many of them as he could before they were able to form some kind of strategy. He kept on going for the woman he'd been on his way to. He reached her and wrapped his left arm around her throat to keep her steady, and launched a colossal elbow into the side of her head. It knocked her out instantly, and may have caused some spinal damage. She was out of the fight.

As soon as the blow connected, he released her throat and used the arm to grab her knife. He spun around so that all of the rest of them were in front of him, rather than spread around. Easier to deal with them if they were all straight ahead, rather than splitting his attention behind him, to his left, and to his right.

He made a split-second decision to launch at the tall woman. He flung himself at her and pretended to go for a blow to the face, but dropped at the last minute and stabbed her in the foot, pinning her leg to the ground. The knife was so sharp, it buried itself in the floor and wouldn't come out unless some significant force was applied directly upwards. The only way for her to release her foot, would be to bend over, grab the hilt and pull. If she tried to pull her foot away, she'd end up slicing it open completely, making the foot basically useless for the duration of the fight. He sprung up and launched an uppercut into her jaw to knock her out. He swung around again to face the rest, and found that they hadn't moved much. He'd been too fast.

"4 down," he thought, "5 to go. Just a single cut to the shoulder. Not too deep. Not bad."

He dashed at one of the other guys, but he was interrupted on his way. The last conscious woman had dropped low and stabbed him straight in the right knee. It fucking hurt. And it meant that kicking was out of the question. He couldn't use his right leg to kick anyone, nor would it support his body weight if he tried to kick with his left. He grit his teeth and made sure not to scream, but the woman that had stabbed him was going to suffer.

He let his momentum carry him onward toward his intended target, but he had been staggered enough that he slowed down a bit. Not too much, but enough for the guy to counter him. As Percy tried to go for a punch to the throat, the guy ducked low, moved in close and sliced his knife across Percy's stomach, leaving a wound about 5 inches deep spanning the length of his torso across his stomach. Percy managed to use it to his advantage though. Before the guy could come back up, Percy grabbed his head, shoved it down, and then used his left foot to stomp on it. Hard. It knocked the guy out and potentially damaged his brain severely. The blow would easily have killed a mortal. Unfortunately, it forced Percy to collapse, as his right leg buckled under his nearly 300-pound body weight. He'd been hoping that his right leg was strong enough, but he'd miscalculated. And that miscalculation may have cost him his life.

From his position on the ground, he could see that he was truly fucked. He had a cut on his right shoulder, his right knee, and a much more serious one across his stomach. He was surrounded by 4 well-trained opponents with knives. He didn't even have a weapon. Or did he? He was right next to the last guy he had knocked out. He might be able to reach over and pick up his knife. Then he'd at least be armed. That wouldn't make the biggest difference, but he would take what he could get by that point.

One of the guys reached him first and kicked him right in the chest, which was good and bad simultaneously. The bad part was pretty obvious. He got kicked in the chest. The good part was that the kick forced him toward the downed opponent with the knife, which was exactly where he had wanted to get to anyway. As he rolled, he picked up the knife. When he reached the next opponent, the woman who had stabbed him in the knee, he used the knife he had picked up to stab her in the knee. He decided to go for the back of the knee though. It made it easier to retrieve it after. Once the blade had done its damage, he ripped it out and slashed it upward, across her stomach, from just below her belly button to sternum. Not the deepest cut and she wouldn't die from it, but she was sure as hell going to feel it.

"Payback, bitch!" he thought vindictively.

She screamed and went stumbling away. It was music to his ears. Unfortunately, the guy that had kicked him was still on him. Percy felt a foot crunch against his skull, much like he himself had done to the last guy. He felt his brain rattle in his skull, as his head was smashed into the floor. The world went hazy, and his knife fell from his grasp. He fought to hold on. He knew that if he went unconscious, he was dead. No other way about it. He was going to die, then and there. The thought gave him strength. He wasn't going to die in his own damned bunk. Not to a bunch of recruits he had left behind. He was Percy fucking Jackson. At the very least, he was going to take them all with him. Make them learn how bad an idea it was, to fuck with him. Cause he would fuck them right back. No more kiddie gloves. No more holding back. The rest of these assholes were going to die.

He rolled away from the guy that had stomped on his head. He managed to pick up the knife of the girl whose knee he'd stabbed. He pushed himself up on his good leg, fought a wave of nausea and disorientation, and flew back toward the guy that had stomped on him. He buried the knife into the spot where his jaw met his neck. The blade went up and straight through the brainstem. He was dead before he processed what had happened.

Percy was left with 3 opponents, including the woman he'd stabbed in the knee and gutted. So practically, it was 2. They were both guys. Unfortunately, they had a spare brain cell between them and stuck close together. The woman had been successfully removed from the equation. She was a few feet away, trying to keep her insides where they belonged. She wasn't going to recover for the duration of the fight. Percy was at a massive disadvantage already. He was up against two opponents. He had no knife, it was still stuck in the last guy's head. And he was already heavily wounded. They were both in perfect health. He hadn't even touched them yet. Ideally, he would have waited; made them come at him, rather than going on the offensive. But he didn't have that luxury. He was bleeding out. Quite quickly, too. The slice across his stomach was deeper than he had originally thought. The stab in his knee was steadily pumping blood. And he was sure that there was something going wrong with his head. Probably a brain-bleed and definitely a concussion. The stomp to the skull had been a heavy hit. He would probably recover from all of that because of Chaos' second blessing, but he would pass out first. And if he passed out, he was dead.

Percy had to end the fight quickly. He approached the two guys. He could return to the last woman once he had dealt with the more immediate threats.

He hobbled to the two remaining goons as slowly as he could. He would wait for the first one to attack, and then he could counter. Better to counter than to go on the offense in his situation. The goon on the right, Goon 1, Percy decided, was the first to attack him. He went for a sweeping slash with his blade. If the hit connected, Percy's neck would have been skewered like a kebab. But it didn't. Percy had seen the blow coming, and grabbed the arm by the elbow. He broke it, forcing Goon 1 to drop his knife, which Percy caught left-handed. He used his new weapon to cut the guy's throat wide open, and left him to drown in his own blood. Before he could attack the other one, Goon 2, Percy felt him move. On reflex, he raised his arm to block, and a knife ended up lodging itself in his right palm. He screamed that time. It was a really painful place to get stabbed, and now his dominant hand was out for the count.

He still had the use of his left hand though, and his left hand was wrapped around a knife, so he had tools to work with. Luckily for him, Goon 2 made a mistake. Instead of letting go of the knife embedded in Percy's hand, he tried to pull it back. As much as it hurt, Percy forced his hand in the other direction, to make it harder for the guy to get his knife back. As his hand was yanked away, he left his throat exposed, and Percy seized the opportunity with both hands. Figuratively, that is. He lunged forward, as best as he was able with a knee that had been stabbed, and sliced his knife across Goon 2's throat. He left him to choke on his own blood.

(A/N: It's safe again.)

He was about to go find medical attention when a mistake came back to bite him in the ass. The second guy he had taken out, the one whose knee he'd kicked in, had recovered and hurled his blade at him. Percy sensed some movement behind him, but he noticed it far too late. He barely had time to move his head out of the way, as the knife went through his carotid artery. If he hadn't reacted, it would have caught him dead center in the throat, severed his spine, and he would have died for sure. As it was, he had sidestepped just enough that the knife cut the carotid, but failed to sever it entirely. It was a little bit more than a nick. But with arteries, a nick is more than enough. Blood sprayed out of his neck like it had been shot out of a super-soaker. He was barely able to spin around and throw his own knife, and he hit the fucker in the forehead. He left the knife where it was and brought his hand up to put pressure on his neck. If he could keep from bleeding out long enough, then maybe he would be able to heal enough to survive. Maybe.

He tried to get to the door of the bunk, but he collapsed immediately. One of his hands had been stabbed, and the knife was still embedded in his palm. The other was being used to prolong his life. One of his legs had been stabbed. He had a massive cut across his stomach. Walking wasn't much of an option for him. He tried desperately to crawl to the door, but it was extremely difficult with only one limb functioning properly. He was relentless though. If he could make it to the elevator, then Chaos would be able to heal him. She was just an elevator ride away.

He tried to crawl as far as he could, but he only made it around 3 feet. He wasn't able to get further. He was about to try and come up with another plan when he was stabbed in the back. He gasped, as whatever air was left in his lungs, was forced out. The knife slipped right into his left lung. It missed his heart by an inch. He ran through everyone that it could have been. He was reasonably sure that it was the same one that had stabbed him in the knee.

He wasn't sure what to do. But he was saved from having to figure it out. He was barely conscious, but he was aware of the door to the bunk opening. Then shadows flooded the room like a tsunami, knocking his attacker off of him. Percy was vaguely aware of his own name being called out, but couldn't be sure of who was doing the calling. It was just an amorphous voice coming at him from the abyss. The world became dark, as Percy lost consciousness.

A/N: Well, there's that chapter, folks. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought. A quick note, I still haven't decided on the main pairing for this story, so if you want to vote either Artemis or Sara, just PM me, or review. Either way, I'll take it into account. Anyway, stay safe, everyone. See you next time.