Mortals Meet Percabeth + one shots and headcannons

Rage

It was a losing battle. The crew of the Argo III were scattered all across the woods as monsters flooded in from many sides. Despite the efforts of the most powerful demigods to ever live, they were being overwhelmed.

The air was sulfurous, crackling with electricity. Skeletons rose from the ground in droves, metal flew as deadly storms, and two dragons flew in the air- one real and one of metal. Many of the monsters turned against each other and dropped dead of their own accord. 

Piper thought everything looked hopeless. Second by second, the group of eight fell back into the center of the forest until they formed a circle not five meters across. Everyone looked utterly exhausted.

She severed the Achilles tendon of a Laistrygonian and jumped on its head, lobbing it off. Quick as lightning, she turned around and threw Katoptris into the eye of a cyclops about to club Jason from behind.

Reyna let out a war cry and stabbed a werewolf. With renewed vigor, the rest of the demigods threw themselves onto the hordes. Piper hacked and slashed like a demon gone crazy and she saw red. 

And then her heart stopped. A manticore held Annabeth upside down, his tail at her heart and a grin on his face. She struggled against the bonds that held her, but the Manticore squeezed tighter.

'Give us what we want,' the manticore rasped. 'Or the girl dies.'

'You'll kill us anyway!' Hazel said.

'No. Our master made us swear on the Styx not to kill any of the demigods unless they refuse to give the-'

A cold breeze wafted through the air. A chill went up Piper's spine, and she shuddered. The presence felt oppressively strong, not unlike the god's auras when they allowed it to flare. A quick glance at the rest of her friends was enough to tell her they felt the same.

Hazel was trembling and Piper was reminded that regardless of everything the younger girl had gone through, she was only fourteen years old.

Even the monsters had frozen, fear etched onto their faces. The only being she'd seen inspiring such fear into monsters was Gaea, and that was more respect than fear. What being could there be that struck such fear into monsters?

The manticore was dripping with sweat. He hadn't realized he had dropped Annabeth, who had a wicked grin on her face. 

Now that topped her "Weird things that have happened to me that don't make any sense at all" list. And that was saying something. She was a demigod, after all.

Then it emerged, its aura growing from frightening to terrifying. First came the dark, thick locks of hair. Then came the rest of the man and Piper breathed a sigh of relief.

Until Percy Jackson raised his chin.

His beautiful green eyes shone out from underneath the long eyelashes that brushed the high cheekbones. His godly features were now contorted into an expression that would have sent any sane creature running.

His eyes, once pools of calm and peace had deepened and darkened; they now reflected the dark, stormy, choppy seas caused by the temper of the Earthshaker. Those eyes promised a lifetime of pain and suffering, hinting at the sweet release of death that he oh-so-certainly would not give.

The mad spark assured pain, torment, and slow torture that he would not relieve you from no matter how much you begged, sobbed, pleaded, or fought. They promised an insatiable bloodlust.

His eyes seemed to calculate a thousand million possibilities. And his lips, usually plastered in a troublemaker smile, making sarcastic quips, were now curved up sharply, cruelly, with a sadistic glint to them.

 Piper knew that this man was one who would watch you drown, thrash in pain, and hold out a float to you. So close, but yet so far. Then he would laugh maliciously, draw his hand back, use his foot to push your barely surfacing head back in and sit back, watching with rapt interest as you slowly went under. 

Then he would pull you up, just to dunk you back in, and repeat the whole thing again. 

And all the while, those pink, luscious, lips, would never stray from that unmoving, savage grin which was just borderline baring his teeth.

Now, Percy Jackson was staring down the Manticore, head tilted slightly as he seemed to drink in the sight of the quivering monster, like a wolf, sniffing the fear out of its prey playing with it till it was no more than a shell, before going in for the kill.

She knew objectively that Percy was strong. But she could never comprehend how strong he truly was because of how goofy, carefree, and silly he was.

Only now did she realize that all this was just lurking behind the mask of bright, innocent eyes, troublemaking, unknowing smiles, and dumb, sassy retorts.

 That mask, made to be underestimated, to be glossed over, to be belittled. 

And Piper, like everyone else, all Percy Jackson's family, friends, allies, and enemies alike, had fallen for it. Like fish lured to a bait, they had unknowingly, unsuspectingly, but all the same, been beguiled by the mask. 

Now that it had been ripped off, and unleashed, Piper could not believe she had ever thought of Percy Jackson as weak.

'Why are you here, Destroyer?'

'Pretty simple, isn't it? You fight my friends on a voyage, and you don't think that I would be there? God, how dumb can you be?'

All Percy did was let out a small snort, before poison started dripping out from the Manticore's tail, steaming and hissing as it hit the ground, leaving behind charred grass and yellow flowers. 

Then he let loose a volley of poison darts. Piper wanted to cry out a warning but bit it back, eyes widening as the darts fell to the ground, and the poison seeped out, turning towards the manticore.

Looking on with equal amounts of fascination, wariness, and growing terror, Piper watched the poison slowly morphed into shapes, first a girl, hanging off a manticore's back as it leaped off a cliff, the same girl, bowing down under a weight obviously not meant for her, face contorted with pain, the manticore, threatening two other doe-eyed, obviously-new-to-the-mythological-world children.

 Those images made no sense whatsoever to Piper, nor did it look like it held any significance to the rest, judging by the confused looks on their faces, but whatever it was seemed to make the manticore, if possible, even more jittery as it struggled to explain itself.

Then the screaming started. Oh, Piper knew she would never be able to get it out of the ears. It would be the sound that infiltrated her many nightmares to come, that chilled her to the core, that made her hackles rise as she flinched, quickly averting her eyes.

 The blood-curdling cries of agony seemed to play on repeat in Piper's ears as she watched the manticore thrash on the floor, anguished moans and inhuman sobs sounded out, pleading for mercy even as he gurgled on the foam leaking from his mouth.

But the Destroyer just stood in front of the Manticore, lips curved impossibly wider into a feral smile as he relished in the cries of mercy. Piper held back a wince as she watched the Manticore, writhing on the ground, pained gasps escaping him as his body contorted into unnatural shapes.

"Can't take some of your own medicine?" Percy curled his lip disdainfully at the whimpering monster, before snorting as blood started trickling out of the manticore's mouth, eyes, nose, and ears.

 Oh, Gods... Piper herself was unable to hold in a retch any longer as she barely suppressed the urge to puke. All around her, her friends took in a collective gasp, eyes bugging out.

Then it was over. The manticore burst, tearing apart, gore flying everywhere. Every monster in the clearing turned to dust instantly.