Brothers In Arms

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Jason slowly opened his eyes. Ugh, I'm... soaked?

Struggling into a seated position, he looked around and found himself in the middle of a forest, sitting in a massive puddle and soaked. Oh yeah, forest. We were hunting Krios.

The son of Jupiter picked at his skin curiously, still only half conscious. Despite being soaked, his skin was dry and cracking, almost as if it had been exposed to unbearable levels of heat and light-

Suddenly memories began to hit the blond boy in flashes.

"I'M DONE PLAYING THESE TRIVIAL GAMES! YOU DIE NOW! WITNESS MY TRUE FORM!"

A form as bright and hot as the sun appearing right in front of Jason and Percy, Jason beginning to scream in pain as he started to combust.

"Sorry, Superman."

And then a globe of water was surrounding him, cooling him and soothing his skin a little, and sending him flying off.

That woke him up for sure.

"Percy!" He attempted to yell as his eyes flew wide open. His hoarse vocal cords gave up on him though, and it ended up as more of a croak. I'll be of no help in this state, he realised with a sigh. I should find the girls.

But even that had its challenges, Jason soon found out. Never before had he found it this hard to stand, never mind walk. And he very quickly learned not to try and fly by manipulating the wind. The air currents rushing by his raw cracked skin might as well have been like tongues of fire.

He collapsed to his knees again with a groan. "Dam it..."

"Oi, oi, oi! We can't have our golden boy using such profanities!"

Jason was too tired to even grin in relief. "Percy... You didn't die, then."

"You sound like you expected me to!" The raven haired god chuckled, giving his friend a hearty clap on the back before Artemis could stop him.

Jason's mouth made a wordless 'O' and he straight up collapsed on the spot.

Percy winced. "Oops. I thought I'd saved him before he took too much damage." He muttered, gently picking up the son of Jupiter.

Artemis shook her head. "I get you were relieved we'd found him, but did it not occur to you to check how he was doing when we found him on his knees and barely moving?"

The son of Poseidon winced again like her words were physical blows. "Yeah, I wasn't thinking. Sorry?"

His girlfriend arched an eyebrow. "I'm not the one you should be apologising to." She sighed, shaking her head and sighing as they began to walk through the trees towards where she had left the girls.

Percy shrugged. "Well, I can't really apologise to him while he's unconscious." He snickered.

Artemis put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "Actually, I meant Piper, who is likely to be more of a danger to you than Krios was once I explain to her why exactly her boyfriend is unconscious."

He shivered. "You wouldn't."

The goddess of the moon kissed his cheek and started to speed up a little. "Watch me."

Percy groaned. "What did I do to deserve this..."

"You were sassing me earlier! No man sasses me and gets away with it, not even you, Salty!"

Percy shrugged as gently as he could with a roasted demigod in his arms. "Fair enough."

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