United As The Ten- Part One Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter Sixteen

Jason's POV:

I stay behind when John and Marina leave with BK. I have to tell Max that I know that the Mogs want to experiment on her. She has a right to know.

After a few minutes of waiting, Max stirs in her sleep and her bright green eyes flutter open. She sits up and looks around the infirmary. Her eyes land on me, sitting on a wooden chair next to her. Max tenses up when she sees me.

"Jason, are you-" she starts but I cut her off.

"Bryce isn't controlling me. Percy knocked him out," I interrupt. Max looks relieved and looks at me like she normally would- with kind eyes and a calm expression- except that now she seems a lot more wary of me and more tense.

Great, now Max is fricking scared of me.

"I have to talk to you about something. Something that the Mogs said," I tell Max. She furrows her brows and sits straighter, looking slightly concerned.

"Yeah? What is it?" Max asks in a comforting tone. Gods, she really doesn't deserve to be tortured or taken by the Mogs.

"Well, remember that one time when I found you in New York and I flew you to Camp Half-Blood?" I ask Max and she nods her head. I sigh, getting ready for what I'm going to say next.

"I um...I heard what Setrákus Ra said. All of it," I confess. Max looks confused at first but soon enough her eyes widen in fear.

"You heard him say..." she trails off, biting her lip. I feel guilty about making her feel like this-embarrassed and upset- but if I knew a secret like this and didn't tell her I knew, that'd be even worse than telling her.

"I know the Mogs want to experiment on you, Max. So they can find out how you were resurrected and do it themselves," I explain slowly. Max nods her head, looking down. She's obviously embarrassed and I want to help her. I place my hand on her shoulder and she looks up at me, her usually cheerful eyes broken and lost. I'm not usually the one who comforts other people, but with Max I'm more than willing to.

"It's okay, Max. I won't tell anyone else, and I'm not going to let the Mogs do that to you," I comfort her, but when I say the last line, Max looks even more upset.

"They, um...." She takes a shaky breath. "...they already did," Max whispers to me, her voice cracking. I feel a roar of anger rising in my chest. The Mogs did this to her. They experimented on her like she was nothing but a lab rat.

I pull Max in a tight, protective embrace. She rests her head on my chest and she's slightly shaking. I can tell that this is a touchy subject for her, and she might be afraid of it. I wouldn't be surprised if she was afraid of being experimented on, especially if she already was. Honestly, I'd be surprised if she wasn't.

I softly rub her arm and she seems a bit more relaxed. She pulls away from me, looking a bit more like her normal self. She opens her mouth to speak but the door to the infirmary swings open and Ivan walks in. Max tenses up next to me and glares at Ivan. I still remember the love potion thing Ivan did to her.

"Max, I need to talk to you," Ivan tells her then glances at me next to her. "Alone."

"Whatever you have to say to Max you can say to both of us, Ivan," I reply, glowering at him. Ivan glares at me, scowling.

"Or maybe I can just get rid of you right now, then I can tell Max," Ivan growls back. I grit my teeth and my hand inches for the gold coin in my pocket.

"Ivan," Max calls out to Ivan in a warning tone. Ivan looks at Max and his expression immediately softens. He looks more calm and looking at Max in a way that I've only seen a few guys look at her. I know that Ivan loves Max. Why else would he put her under a love potion?

"Fine. I want to talk about the testing, Max," Ivan says and Max tenses up even more. I remember what Setrákus Ra said about testing- it means experimenting, which means Ivan and I both know that the Mogs want to experiment on Max.

"How did you-" Max starts.

"I'm a Mogadorian, I know what testing means," Ivan interrupts, sitting at the foot of the bed Max is sitting on.

"Experiment," I add in. Ivan looks confused and shocked.

"How did you know that?" Ivan asks me, cautiously looking me up and down.

"I overheard Setrákus Ra talking about it," I answer. Ivan nods his head, still glancing at me warily. He then looks at Max with a kind expression.

"Are you okay, Max?" Ivan asks Max, glancing down at her stomach. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. Max obviously knows what Ivan is talking about, but I don't.

"I'm fine," Max promises then turns to me.

"Where's Bryce?" She asks me and I feel another wave of anger roll through me. I hate Bryce and everything he stands for.

"Percy tied him up, he's somewhere in the ship," I answer and Max's eyes widen at my response.

"Tied up? Jason, Bryce has-" Max starts but is interrupted by a familiar cold voice from the doorway.

"Telekinesis?"

I whip around and am face-to-face with Bryce, smirking down at us. I jump up and flip my gold coin, catching it as a sword. Ivan unsheathes his Mogadorian sword and Max jumps off the bed and unsheathes her Voron sword. Bryce just clicks his tongue and calmly flicks his wrist at us. All our weapons fly out of our hands and land on the other side of the room.

"Who are you?" Ivan growls at Bryce, clenching his fists.

"Bryce Lawrence, legacy of Orcus. I know you, Ivanick, you traitor," Bryce spits at Ivan, glaring ice daggers at him.

"What do you want from us?" Ivan asks, gritting his teeth together. Bryce raises his eyebrows, leaning against the wall nonchalantly, like he didn't take over someone's body and torture someone else just mere minutes ago.

"'Us'? I don't want you or Jason. I just want Max," Bryce smirks, staring at Max smugly. I grit my teeth and it takes all of my self-control to stop myself from lunging at him and choking him to death.

"That's not going to happen," Ivan snarls, slowly inching towards his sword. Bryce raises his eyebrows, clearly amused by this.

"I doubt that," Bryce replies then sends Ivan flying to the other side of the room. He crashes into the wall and slides down, groaning. Bryce smirks at me.

"Your turn, Jason," he drawls, pointing his hand at me. He lifts me into the air but Max charges at him and tackles him to the floor. He drops me and I land on my feet. Max has Bryce pinned down and is punching him in the face repeatedly. Bryce lifts Max up with telekinesis then throws her on the floor. I charge at him but he holds me in place then unsheathes his Mogadorian sword. I fight against his telekinesis but it's too strong. He races towards me and is about to jab at me when Max sticks her leg out and nearly trips him. He stumbles a few steps then, with his telekinesis, drags Max to the other side of the room.

Bryce smirks and charges at me again then slams the hilt of his sword into my stomach. I gasp in pain and Bryce swings at my legs. I fall to my knees and Bryce smirks down at me then kicks my side and stomach repeatedly. I feel a few of my ribs breaking and when Bryce finally stops slamming his foot onto me, he raises his sword over my head. He's about to bring it down on me when the hilt of a glowing Mogadorian sword bangs against his head. He falls to the ground, unconscious.

Ivan looms over me, one of his eyebrows raised. "Try not to almost get yourself killed next time, huh?" Ivan tells me, holding his hand out for me. I glare at him but take his hand anyways. He easily lifts me to my feet like I weigh nothing and shoves me away from him. I roll my eyes at him and feel someone move next to me. I look that way and see Max standing in between Ivan and I. She sighs in exasperation as Ivan and I size each other up and glare at each other.

"We need to get John to take his legacies away," Max tells Ivan and I. We both nod our heads in agreement. Ivan roughly grabs Bryce and drags him out of the door. Max and I follow him to find John, who copied Ella's Dreynen a while ago. Hopefully we'll get rid of this jerk.

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