Because We Can

12~ The Hell We're Living

Jason.

"PIPER!!" He screamed, trying to see through the fog. "PIPER!!"

Grey surrounded him, and darkness gently settled in as Jason blindly ran in circles. He had to find her and keep her safe. He had promised her father that much. He had promised her that much.

Faint screams echoed in his ears. Jason couldn't tell if it was his own desperation or really her. He blinked, realizing that my effort to keep my eyes open was useless.

"Piper?" Jason called out. "Pipes, tell me where you are!"

Then another scream pierced his brain, only this time from a completely different direction. Then another. And another. All of them exactly the same - shrill with fear.

"Please, Piper!" He yelled, crumpling to the floor. The voices, multiplying by the second, were surrounding him, coming closer and closer. He felt so weak, so fragile. He needed to save Piper from what was hurting her - what ever it was. He had to keep her safe.

He covered his ears with his arms, curling up into a ball on the floor. Groaning, something sqeezed his sides. Jason could not afford to see what it was.

He wanted to scream.

"Superman," a raspy woman's voice hissed. Definitely not Piper. "Not so super, are we? Hm, Superman? Not strong enough?"

Jason's heart stopped in his chest. He knew that voice - the sweet, luring voice of the now defeated earth goddess.

"I've got the daughter of Venus, Jason. I want to add your blood to my collection." Gaea snickered, and Jason found himself frozen. He literally couldn't move. "The Minerva girl thinks she's so wise, but you don't believe that, do you? And what of the son of Neptune, the great Perseus Jackson. You can defeat him, can't you, Jason? Or are you not strong enough? I can defeat them for you, son of Jupiter. I can destroy them."

Jason's body shivered as she cackled.

"And the son of Mars. His life can burn away at any moment. You believe he's weak, Jason.

Don't you? The fire user is nothing to you. And the girl, the daughter of Pluto- with me, you can destroy them all."

"Stop it," Jason managed to growl. But why was she here? Percy and Annabeth were at Camp Half Blood. They were safe, and Piper was too. But Frank and Hazel- how were they doing in California?

"Wake up, son of Jupiter," she whispered. "Face the hell you live."

~~~

Piper.

There are very few things that scare Piper to the bone. Sure, she could be scared for a second or two, but she always recovered enough to fight whatever monster was attacking her.

But, with the only light coming from the Big House, Piper's fear rose to new heights. A chilling wind seemed to blow right through her as she climbed the hill to the training arena. In the distance, the sounds of New York echoed throughout Camp Half Blood.

As Piper neared the targets, she unsheathed her knife. Katoptris glowed faintly as she rolled her shoulders. Lately, she'd been getting up during the dead of night to train. With no one to bother her, no little kids bugging her to teach them how to wield a knife, she could be at peace.

She raised her arm, preparing to throw her knife, when footsteps squished the grass Piper had stepped lightly through to keep herself hidden. She spun around, expecting a child of Ares (she was, after all, in the training arena) when she spotted sleepy blue eyes.

"Piper?" Jason called out, sounding confused. "What- why are you out here?" He jogged up to her, staying a few feet away. "Do you realized what time it is?"

"I don't know, do you?" she asked playfully, but noticed the dark bags under his eyes. "You okay?"

He nodded at first, but then tried to smile as he shook his head. "Not at all."

Piper stepped forward and took his hand. "Dream?"

"I don't know," he said. "But Gaea-"

"Gaea?" Piper repeated, shocked.

"Yeah, Gaea," he breathed out. He squeezed her hand. "She called me weak, Pipes."

"Jason, you aren't weak."

He shook his head again. "That isn't what bothers me, though. She said she had you, Piper. She said she had your blood."

Piper was speechless, but Jason continued. "Then she acted like I had turned against my friends, like I was joining her army. She said I thought Annabeth was stupid, and that I could defeat Percy. She said I could take down the Seven."

Piper looked up at him, but he was looking at the edge of the trees.

"Jace?" she whispered, and his attention was on her. "She's gone, Jason. We're all safe now. Frank and Hazel are back at Camp Jupiter, and everyone else is safe. Gaea doesn't have me, okay? You do."

She could have drowned in his eyes. "Thank you, Piper." And then he leaned in close. "I love-"

Piper shook her head. "Don't promise me like that, Jason. Not yet."

He just nodded a little, reaching down to take her knife out of her hand. She'd forgotten about Katoptris. "Okay," he muttered.

"Okay?"

"Yeah," he agreed again, and their kiss was like fire and ice, the earth and the sky, the moon and the sun, dreams and the hell they had escaped.

Gods i love fluff :3

"From the longest winter,

To the coldest summer,

Like the midwest tumnder,

You have pulled me under.

I'll do anything it takes to get through;

I can carry you to any distance-

No one's ever gonna love you like I do."

     -Love Letters, Paper Route

HAPPY READING YOU LOVELY MINIONS.