Chapter Text
When Percy woke up the next morning, he was surprised to find the soreness wasn’t as bad as he expected. He expected paralyzing agony, he just felt more stiffness with slight jolts of pain in certain areas. Stretching was a bit more painful but other than that, he felt alright. His jaw was hurting but he chalked that up to being Clarisse’s fault, he’d have to get her back later, he’d probably just pour hot sauce on her breakfast when she wasn’t looking or something like that.
Percy shivered as the cool air of the ceiling fan bit at his skin. He climbed out of bed and rushed over to shut the fan off. Overall, he really appreciated the renovations. His room had actual curtains instead of blinds, cheap carpet, and a ceiling fan. His room was naturally colder too which was a plus in his eyes, he couldn’t stand trying to sleep in the heat.
Even his bed had been replaced with a softer mattress and even softer pillows. There were also these cool little compartments on the bottom for storing whatever he wanted in there. He found his mom’s letters in one of those compartments, though he wasn’t sure who put them there.
A knock at the door interrupted him just as he had started to make his bed. He frowned, he wasn’t expecting visitors, though he really should’ve since he knew word of his return was no doubt spreading.
The last thing Percy expected when he opened the door was to find Annabeth standing there, a wide grin on her face and two cups of coffee in her hands. His mouth gaped open and closed like a fish’s would, mainly because she looked absolutely stunning with how she was dressed. Despite how simple her outfit was, which only consisted of black cargo pants and a black tank top, she still rocked it. She looked a lot like a blonde Lara Croft in his eyes.
It didn’t take long for him to get his wits back about himself. He reminded himself that their relationship was strictly professional, save for the fact that they kept stealing each other’s food at dinner yesterday.
“What a surprise, it’s the girl who tried to kill me.” He said, leaning against the doorway.
“Don’t tell me you’re being a sore loser over yesterday.” She rolled her eyes.
He shrugged and moved aside to let her in, “Can’t be too mad, especially after I got you on the ground like that.”
Annabeth had just finished setting the cups of coffee on his nightstand when he said that. She gave him a glare as soon as the words left his mouth. For someone who was accusing him of being a sore loser, it seemed she was a little bit of a sore loser herself, maybe it took one to know one.
“That was a cheap move and you know it.” She said.
“It was funny though.” He grinned as he sat down on his mattress.
“Yeah, sure, okay. Next time, you try smacking your face on the mat and tell me how funny it is.” She complained. “My nose hurt so bad after you did that.”
“You kept hitting me in the kidneys, that was payback.”
“You were leaving yourself open, it was too hard to resist.” She defended as she sat next to him, “Anyways, that wasn’t exactly how I wanted to welcome you back.”
“Yeah, I meant to ask about that yesterday at dinner, where were you?” He asked.
She sighed and he had a feeling the conversation was about to dip into something rather tough, “I was in Malcolm’s office, we thought we found a lead as to where Luke ran off to. Turned out of be one big nothingburger.”
“You guys are still looking for Luke?” He asked, “I mean, wouldn’t he be far gone by now?”
“It doesn’t matter, he’s still a very big threat.” Annabeth stretched her arms above her head, “He knows how this virus works better than any of us, he’s well trained, and clearly, he’s motivated. Guys like him are arguably worse than the infected at this point.”
“Yeah, but don’t you think you’re looking in the wrong place? Why would he stick around in the safe zone knowing we’re looking for him?”
“Percy, there are splinter towns with thousands of people in them. He could disappear into one, cause an outbreak, and move onto the next one before we could respond. Remember what I told you before? An outbreak here and those walls we built to keep the infected out might as well be our gravestones.”
Percy didn’t like how grim Annabeth’s tone of voice was. The only thing that got him through his deployment was the fact that he was able to stay positive. He’d seen zombified children and mangled corpses yet he still managed to stay sane by convincing himself that despairing over them would do more harm than good.
At the same time, Annabeth had good reason to be grim. Luke was an adversary that was more capable and deadlier than the infected could ever hope to be.
“I’m sure we’ll find him.” Percy said, “Plus, you and I are back together, I think we can handle him.”
Annabeth smiled, “I’m glad you still trust me, you know, after everything that happened with Luke.”
Percy looked away, for a while, he didn’t trust her. Every rational part of his brain warned him that she could be ready to kill him as soon as Luke gave her the order. Those suspicions faded away after a while, mainly because if she wanted to kill him, she would’ve done so way sooner. She could’ve easily killed him while he was bed-ridden, just inject him with some poison and it’d be game over for him. Yet she didn’t do anything but be there for him.
“Annabeth, I really don’t blame you for what Luke did, it wasn’t like you told him to do it. The way I see it, he played you just like he played me and everyone else.” He said.
“I know but it’s just…well, I never really apologized. I really should’ve known that he was going to do that, I just feel like the world’s biggest idiot for not seeing it.” She rubbed the back of her neck while she stared at the floor, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I let you down.”
“Eh, it’s fine.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, the butterflies in his stomach rioting when he did so, “I got you back anyways. Next time you nearly let someone kill me, I’m just going to make you fall on your face again.”
“I’m trying to be serious!” Annabeth protested, “And there won’t be a next time. The next person that tries to kill you is going to have to get through me first.”
“Woah, woah, woah, slow it down there.” He said, retracting his arm, “Are you trying to say you’re protecting me? No way, it’s the other way around, I protect you.” He said while pointing at her.
Annabeth rolled her eyes, “What, you feel threatened by having a woman protect you, is that it?”
Maybe, Percy thought.
“No, it’s just if we’re going to be partners, then it needs to go both ways. I watch your back, you watch mine.” He said.
“Well, don’t go calling us partners just yet, Chiron is the one who decides who partners up with who.” She warned, “Remember, you got transferred out of my command when you left, we still need to talk to Chiron about it.”
“Well, then let’s go!”
Ω
“Well, seeing as how Annabeth doesn’t have a partner and you’re willing to step in,” Chiron considered as he sifted through his reports, a now cold cup of coffee sitting on his desk right next to a cup of pens and pencils, “I’ll allow it. After all, you two do have a close professional relationship with one another.”
Percy wanted to smile and give Annabeth a high-five and judging from the look on her face, she felt the same exact way. She was wearing a huge smile like she’d just won the lottery.
“However, I can’t put either one of you under the other’s command. Annabeth, your personnel list is full, so therefore I can’t put Percy under your command. From here on, you both have equal authority, unless a certain operation deems otherwise.”
Percy frowned, “Uh, sir, I don’t have anyone under my command.”
“Of course you do.” Chiron rolled his chair over to a file cabinet and opened it, sifting through the folders inside before producing a folder that admittedly looked quite empty. He plopped the folder onto his desk, watching as Percy reached for it.
Annabeth peered over his shoulder as he opened the folder. He was just as curious as she was, he didn’t even know he had anyone under his command. This entire time, he thought he was doing everything solo.
Percy’s hands pushed the folder open and sure enough, Chiron was right. There were at least a dozen or so different papers in the folder, each one belonging to a different soldier. He recognized most of them, they were the soldiers he’d helped back in Gator Town.
“Not a bad lineup at all.” Annabeth said over his shoulder, making him jump when her warm breath hit his ear, he hadn’t realized she’d gotten that close to him.
“Combat engineer, designated marksman, cryptologist…” Percy flipped through each paper, reading off their roles.
He was impressed, his team was relatively well-rounded. When he’d first met his men back at Gator Town, he thought they were simple National Guardsmen and militia troops, but reading their files, it was obvious they were professional soldiers before the outbreak. Some of them even had previous deployments.
“Your men will be returning in a week, we managed to recall them from the frontlines.” Chiron said, “Until then, I suggest you do as much as you can to prepare yourself to lead them.”
Percy nodded. Luckily, he wasn’t a complete noob. If he hadn’t had prior military experience, he would’ve been nervous but luckily, he had some, even if it was just flying in a squadron of jets.
“You can keep the folder. Now, onto more pressing matters.” Chiron sighed as he shut the file cabinet, “Luke’s trail has gone cold. Drone surveillance and search teams last tracked him heading southwest, towards the Gulf of Mexico. We aren’t sure what his intentions are but I want you both to be ready, I fear we’ll be seeing him again.”
Percy resisted the urge to say it was just one guy, he knew just how much of an impact just one guy could have. He’d taken out a whole group of bandits and he wasn’t even really anywhere near Luke’s level of training and experience, he could only imagine just what Luke himself could do.
“What are we supposed to do if we find him again?” Percy asked, “Do you want us to just detain him?”
Chiron nodded, “Detaining him would be preferable. Aside from any other knowledge he may have of the virus, we also want to understand why he did what he did. The theories floating around about him and his possible involvement in this pandemic are…disturbing to say the least. Now, is there anything else you wanted to ask?”
Percy glanced at Annabeth, who shook her head. She hadn’t asked much since the meeting started.
“I don’t think so.” He said, “Wait, actually, there is one thing.”
Chiron raised an eyebrow at him.
“I haven’t written or talked to my mom in a while, I was wondering if—”
“You could contact her?” Chiron finished.
Percy nodded.
Chiron gave him a smile, “Percy, you just came back from a month-long deployment, I’m sure there would be no harm in letting you visit her. I’ll get the information of the splinter town she is in and I’ll see to it that you can visit her.”
