Among Us: a PJO AU

Another Option

They pieced the story together like this: Jason ate lunch with Piper and Reyna in the cafeteria, before walking Leo to nav and continuing down to shields. He was going to make sure the heat shields were functioning at full capacity for re-entry. Hazel was on her way to comms when she saw Jason's body. As far as she knew, no one else was around.

"What were you going to do in comms?" Leo asked.

Hazel's eyes narrowed. "What took you so long in nav?"

"Actually, both of you should answer that question." Reyna was a born commander, whenever she spoke people listened. Both Hazel and Leo stepped back.

"I was checking the comm wires, Frank said he was having trouble reaching the reactor," Hazel said.

All eyes turned to Frank. "Is that true?" Reyna asked.

"I-uh, yeah! Piper was in the reactor measuring radiation levels and I was in the cafeteria doing the same. We do that every two days. But the comms were down and we couldn't check readings with each other."

Annabeth nodded. That was indeed their routine."That checks out. And Leo?"

Leo scowled. "I was trying to fix the stupid course correction software. Do you know how annoying that is? If the coordinates are even a fraction off there's no way to-"

"Okay," Annabeth cut him off. "I've done that with you before, I know how long it takes."

Annabeth glanced around the table. "Did anyone see anything else? Any suspicious activities?" One-by-one she made eye contact with everyone. Each person shook their head. Annabeth sighed. "I don't want to say this, but I need to. We have to get the ship ready for re-entry. Everything's failing. As much as I want to figure this out, we have jobs to do."

Hazel blinked. "You don't really expect us to go out with two killers on the lose, right?"

"Look, if we don't fix the ship, we're all going to die. I know we're all scared, but we can do this. Travel in groups of three or more if possible, and report any suspicious behavior immediately, understood?" Everyone glanced uneasily across the table. "And... we can't turn on each other. There are seven of us and two of them. Blatantly accusing each other isn't going to fix anything."

Everyone grudgingly nodded. Annabeth hoped they could contain this threat as quickly as possible. But three of us are already dead, a little voice said. Shut up, she told it. "Piper, how were the radiation levels in the reactor?"

Piper grimaced. "Not good. Not dangerous yet, but not ideal."

"Great. Leo, you and I need to go fix the reactor. Again."

Leo pressed his hand to face. "Wonderful."

"I'm going too!" Percy piped up.

Annabeth set her hand on Percy's forearm. "Percy, you have to fix the water tanks."

"No way. Not with crazy aliens on loose. I'm going with you."

Annabeth opened her mouth to argue, but shut it. She could tell from the set of Percy's jaw he had made up his mind. And this way, I can keep an eye on you too, she thought. "Fine. Percy, Leo, and I will go to the reactor. Grover, will you, Nico, and Hazel head to shields and download the data?"

Grover nodded. "Yeah. Is Jason's blood still...?"

Annabeth stared at the floor. "We just.... don't have the time."

"Wonderful. Well, we will do our best."

Annabeth nodded. "That leaves Piper, Reyna, and Frank. Can you guys finish up in admin?"