#but hecat told him bout some not so secret experiments

[weirdraccoon]

Professor Hecat: Nicely done, Mr. Sallow. And I need to have a word with you after class, by the way.

Ominis *whispering*: What did you do now?

Sebastian *hurt expression*: Why do you always think I did something?

Professor Hecat *smirking*: Not to worry, Mr. Gaunt. Mr. Sallow is not in trouble. I'm simply curious about his future and career. I'm sure Professor Ronen will talk with you any day now, Mr. Gaunt.

Sebastian *worried*: Damn, that sounds worse than being in trouble.

Ominis *snickering*: Is being a dark lord a career?

[jflashandclash]

Attrition of Peace

Thirty-Seven: Axel

The Secret Power of Romantic Assisting

(or: When the Children of Love and Desire Conspire Against their Commanders)

             No one knew how to react when the God of Nightmares poofed into a pig and ran into the darkness, squealing.

           There was a breath of silence in the icy December breeze.

           Then Calex, Kally, Euna, and Pax cheered.[1]

           Everyone else followed suit.

           Clovis looked like he was bowing for a second, then Axel realized the poor son of Hypnos had fallen asleep leaning on Michael Kahale’s spear. Axel had no idea how many bouts of torment Phobetor had put him through, but the boy was clearly exhausted.

           Lou Ellen turned to Alabaster, unbothered by his Cloven Terror helm. She raised a hand for a high-five, and Axel could swear he read the words, “The power of Hecate’s Babes, am I right, Al?” from her lips.

           Axel didn’t get to see if Alabaster stared at her in confusion, or if he was too miserable over losing a god’s foot as an experiment specimen. The impact of Reyna’s elbow in Axel’s ribs was too distracting.

           When they first got here, he hadn’t wanted to touch her; he wanted to stay as distant from her as possible. But, when she had knelt down and her tattoo had glowed to signify that she was loaning Clovis some of her strength, he felt like he could sense her doubt. He could see her shoulders shudder.

           On instinct, he had knelt down to help prop her up.

           Now, after jamming her elbow into Axel’s chest, she rose like she hadn’t been the reason Clovis was still standing—at least sleep standing.

           Around them, the troops bustled with activity. When Thalia made her way towards them, Euna’s face became more animated than he’d seen since her sister died. Kally and Calex set to work tending to the wounded that Lou Ellen had magicked past the barrier. They chattered about how Merry was tucked safely in a sleeping bag in the Roman barracks. Apparently, she’d tried to cross the boundary line and hadn’t woken up since—though Calex was pretty sure that was more from previous exhaustion than Phobetor’s extended magic.

           “OH GODS, MY SHINS!” came from one of the wounded.

           Nearby Sherman’s wails, Pax sniffled back sobs while doing tricks to distract Connor Stoll. The child of Hermes jerked awake, staring at the two clefts in his palm and arm. When Connor tried to lift his hand, he found the outer half of his hand flopped backwards, hanging on by some skin and muscle tissue.

Connor, as would be expected, screamed.

           “At least now you’ll be an expert with hand-and-a-half swords,” Pax laughed hysterically, trying to keep Connor from sitting up so a Roman medic could attend to him.

           The decapitated head on Pax’s utility belt chuckled. “Someone’s pick locking days might be over,” he sang with that horrible scratchy voice. They really needed to get a solid gag for Jack, before he got them kicked out of camp or exiled out of America. “But! Your older brother told me some funny stories about you, so I’ll see what I can do.”

           Axel didn’t know if it would be better or worse if Jack tried to heal Connor. Or even if he could heal anymore.

           Axel felt the strategist in him turn off his sympathy. He couldn’t think about who the Romans had watched bleed out before they got here or who was in that body pile on the other side of the strawberry field.

           This wasn’t a time to be celebrating this mini-victory. Phobetor wouldn’t stay a pig for long, regardless of how powerful Lou Ellen and Alabaster were. He might sulk off humiliated, but they would need to plan to prevent these bouts from happening again.

           Axel couldn’t shake the feeling this was more a diversion from Eris than a finale.

           When he caught Reyna’s cold gaze, he could tell she was thinking the same.

           Axel was about to ask if anything else had happened at the camp other than Phobetor, when Calex stepped to his side.

           Michael Kahale turned away from another soldier that Axel assumed was reporting on border patrol. He scowled at Axel. “Permission to speak out of place,” he requested.

           Reyna scanned their environment, taking into account the way piglet-Phobetor had darted off, how Lou Ellen and Alabaster dragged Clovis to the border, how they still didn’t hear any commotion from inside the camp to hint at others waking up, and how her troop’s morale had lifted.

           “Granted,” she spoke robotically. Her mind seemed to catch up with how odd his request was, and she asked, “Kahale?”

           “You and the Leonis Caput need to talk,” he said, tone careful.

           Axel pulled his shoulders back and straightened his posture. Regardless of whether or not he wanted to talk to Reyna as Reyna, he did need to talk with another tactician to exchange information, discuss potential aggression from the enemy, make battle plans, and figure out what troops were available where. But Axel got a sense that wasn’t what Kahale meant.

           All of Axel’s self restraint went into not scouring his pockets for a cigarette. Well, the pockets he didn’t have in his leather pteruges. All he had was a leather pouch that Pax had assuredly put gum into—it had better be gum. And now was not the time for cigarettes, though maybe his smoking would give Reyna more reason to hate him.

           “The war tent would probably be the best place,” Calex broke in.

           Axel glanced from Calex to Michael Kahale. He leaned to the side to see what tattoo was on Kahale’s forearm: a dove. Aphrodite’s symbol.  

           “That’s not necessary—” Axel snapped.

           “Yes it is, mate,” Calex cut him off, grabbed his shoulder, and twisted Axel to face the tent. “You two go debrief and update us on the battle afterwards.”

Before Axel could protest, Calex gave him a solid shove forward.

Axel stumbled once before catching himself. He paused to gather his composure and mentally add kill Calex to his to-do list.

His ears twitched to hear Kahale’s whisper, “It’s best to deal with distractions before they become distracting during a dangerous situation.”

He didn’t hear Reyna give a vocal reaction, though he could envision her cold eyes boring into Kahale’s soul.

After a brief pause where Axel began to turn back towards them, Reyna stepped past him towards the tent. “Leonis Caput,” she called without waiting for him to catch up.

Axel clenched his jaw. He glanced back to the others.

Kahale glared at him, fingering the hilt of his gladius in the quietest of threats.

Calex gave him a charming smile and a thumbs up.

Axel lowered his Mist mask momentarily to bare his teeth at Calex.

Calex and Kahale both paled.

Without intending it, Axel got the distinct feeling he’d made Michael Kahale regret advising Reyna to be alone with him.

Lifting a hand over his face to recraft his human features, Axel turned back towards Reyna. He found Thalia had run up alongside her. In the glint of the floodlights, the silver studs on Thalia’s punk boots and pants glistened. The Lieutenant of Artemis spoke rapidly. Within a few paces, Axel caught up enough to hear, “—eyes still closed. So, it seems like the statue, drakon, and the rest of the camp are still out cold. Christiana even tried firing toilet paper at them, to see if they’d wake up in anger, but they got no response.”

“You TPed the Athena Parthenos?” Reyna asked.[2]

“For a good cause,” Thalia said. “We also tied a rope to Lesedi and sent her in. She faceplanted fast.”

“So, we still can’t get in,” Reyna growled.

Thalia nodded grimly. She glanced at Axel as soon as he caught up to their stride. Thalia and Reyna paused at the entrance of the tent.

Thalia shoved Axel’s shoulder hard. A shock ran through Axel’s body, like he’d been tased, and he could smell what was left of his shirt smoldering. Axel had to grab the tent post to keep from collapsing. His legs clenched up and his chest shuddered.

“My brother had better be alright,” she snapped.

Axel wasn’t sure what to say. Last he’d seen of Jason during Alabaster’s hailstorm, Pax had been repeatedly kicking Jason in an area that might end the Grace family line. If Axel had to take a guess, this wouldn’t be good information to assure Thalia.

Thalia’s glare darted past Axel, back to the others. “Is Euna alright?” she asked, her tone softening.

Axel straightened. “Go talk to her,” he managed.

Thalia hesitated, glancing from Reyna back to Axel. “I hope you realize that fight against Percy and the others really hurt your application for the huntresses.”

He couldn’t tell if she was joking.

She nodded to Reyna before walking back towards the others.

Once she left, Axel slowly lifted his right knee to stretch his leg. He didn’t want to show Reyna how much Thalia had hurt him, but it was better than collapsing as soon as he released the pole.

“You wanted to be a huntress?” Reyna asked. For a split second, there was humor in her voice.

Axel lowered his leg. This felt like Kronos had used his time manipulation powers to take them back in the past and suspend them in the calm of their stay at Camp Jupiter, where Santiago was dead and Axel still had hope that he might join the legion. “That’s the rumor Ajax has spread,” he said.

Whenever Axel rejected a proposition from a camper or monster at Camp Othrys, that’s how Pax would comfort them. Not that Axel wouldn’t love traversing the forest on an eternal hunt but…

Despite how the exhaustion carved deep circles under Reyna’s eyes, she looked regal in her cloak and praetorian armor. When Axel released the pole, the curtain wrapped around it fell, obscuring the entrance behind him.

He hadn’t been sure what Reyna would do after he left Rome. They’d warned them about Camp Half-Blood, but with how little she must trust him…

“You came,” he said.

For a heartbeat, she stared at him. Then Reyna continued into the tent. The set up was small: a few fold up chairs around a flimsy table with a map of Camp Half-Blood. There was an extra sword rack on one side with some paperwork. An overhead light swung gently from one of the supporting poles. A cot was stretched between two posts, one that Axel guessed Reyna hadn’t touched.

At least the tent material kept out some of the cold air. Axel had been struggling not to shiver the whole night. The Leonis Caput fur was warm, but there wasn’t much left of his shirt, between Percy’s firehosing him and Thalia zapping him. And pteruges weren’t designed for New York winters. There was a space heater in one corner, one Axel wished was a little closer.

Reyna absently slipped her knife out and twirled it between her fingers. She walked to the map of Camp Half-Blood, scowling down. There were notes and sketches jotted on scrap paper nearby. A copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses lay open with highlighted pages.

“Regardless of whether or not you had fabricated the warnings about Camp Half-Blood, I knew this camp would be in danger. With Frank pursuing you, it wasn’t difficult for the Senate to agree to two task forces—one on high alert in Camp Jupiter in case your warnings were a distraction, and one to come check here.” She jammed her knife into the corner of the map. “Now, what happened after Calex left? If you don’t have any information that will be useful, then make yourself useful elsewhere.”

Axel forced himself not to react to her curtness. This was better than he’d expected. He gave her a brief rundown of the end of the fight, focusing mainly on the end condition of their allies and how quickly they’d be able to recover and help here.

Then, they recapped the current pieces they knew were on the board: Phobetor was at camp, keeping everything quiet, someone had kidnapped Hemera, according to Pax, Lapis had traveled into Tartarus to deliver a message to someone, and Hiro had taken Percy’s little sister, Melinoe had snatched Nico to use as a “shadow bridge” for something, Atë left a vague warning about the Pax brothers coming to camp, and Eris was distracting all of the gods with petty fights.

Although Reyna’s dark gaze didn’t portray much, her shoulders shuddered when Axel talked about Nico and Will.

Axel wanted to prevent any pauses in the conversation. That would force them both to think about other things. “I saw you have the huntresses on border patrol. Monsters haven’t realized the barrier is down yet, I take it?”

“They’ve killed a few on sight, but no mass numbers yet.”

“You don’t have that many huntresses,” he observed.

“Most of them are with Artemis, hunting a Fox that can never be caught,” Reyna said, “I was lucky I was able to get a hold of Thalia. Communication is still mostly down.”

“And we have your troops and a handful of injured campers,” Axel put a hand on the war table, his brain straining to connect Eris’ illogical dots. “We’re dealing with a goddess that doesn’t need an objective,” Axel muttered. He wished he could pull Pax or Alabaster in here. Pax thought a lot like his mother, and Alabaster had been assigned to taking down Camp Half-Blood’s borders during the Second Titan War. But Alabaster would never cooperate with Reyna and Axel didn’t need Pax’s commentary—

Reyna’s fist shook around her dagger as she dug it into the table, plastic twisting up with each turn.

Axel paused.

Her heartbeat, her scent, her determination---

Shut up, he scolded the Leonis Caput, confused by his sudden interest.

And you stand here, once a warrior, now a coward—

Axel didn’t understand its egging. He was too tired to fully shut it out.

This wasn’t the place for this or the time. But, if Phobetor did start the games up, and there was nothing they could do, then Axel might never get to apologize. Could he apologize for being what he was?

Such an apology would be that of a pathetic, broken spirit.

He puffed up his cheeks and popped them. There was nothing he could really say, but…

“Did any ninja zombie bunnies survive?” he asked.

That was not what he’d wanted to say.

Axel wasn’t ready to be punched in the face. Her fist hit him solidly, knocking him a step backwards. Reyna had pivoted for full follow-through and force. “You set my couch on fire,” she snarled.

Axel spit some blood to the side. “Frank was trying to capture me for execution—”

Before he could fully recover, Reyna slid forward to jam her elbow into Axel’s diaphragm. “You ate Frank’s ear.”

His legs still felt like jelly from Thalia’s tasing. Upon stumbling back into the sword rack, Axel lost his footing and would have been impaled had it not been for the Leonis Caput cloak. He could feel the shape of the swords smash into his bruises. “I didn’t eat it—” he cut himself off to duck away from Reyna’s foot as she tried to crack his skull open with her heel.

When he jumped up to his feet, Axel could hear the sound of metal against metal as Reyna withdrew her gladius.

Although Axel probably should have had a stronger reaction, all he could growl was, “great.”

Leonis Caput. Lieutenant of Kronos’ army. Falls backwards on sword rack before being skewered to death by the woman he loves.

The only worthy opponent is one that struggles until death. Fight her as we’re destined, you worthless fool!

Axel wanted to snarl at the Leonis Caput. Not helping.

A true warrior only wants a worthy opponent. She only wants us when—

“You humiliated me in front of my troops,” she snarled.

Reyna grabbed Axel by the back of his hair. While holding him in place she drove the tip of her sword straight at his chest.

Axel reached past the blade to latch his fingers over her sword hand. He grunted, feeling the tip sink a centimeter into his skin. Up close, he could see the fury in her black eyes, the way her lips trembled, how the swaying light cast highlights in her black braid. He could feel her breath on his face. He could smell her honeyed scent mixed with sweat. And he knew she’d kill him if he let her.

He wasn’t going to die here. And he certainly wasn’t going to humiliate himself any further by not actually fighting.

Axel reached into his pouch with his free hand and withdrew his lighter. He struggled to regain his footing and stand taller.

Both their hands quivered as Reyna strained to push the tip of the gladius further in. Her stance was better. He clenched his jaw as a spike of pain spread in his chest, as the blade slowly sank in and blood spread along the scraps of his shirt.

“I was trying to figure out how to tell you…” he snarled, “Xma’su’tal Xib, Liik’il Xtaabay!”

My turn, the Leonis Caput gargled a laugh. Like a black fog, the Leonis Caput wrestled control from Axel and turned its attentions to the preator he was born to destroy.

Thanks for reading! Axel and Reyna have... *ehem* some tough stuff to hash out.

[1] Mel has repeated expressed her sheer disappointment that Kally doesn’t shout something obscene, or at least special, at Alabaster. So, apparently I feel the need to state: Alabaster likes Kally because she doesn’t publicly humiliate him. And while Kally is slowly evolving from a shy doormat, she has yet to reach her final form, where she can express herself without hesitation, and where she can ask Alabaster if he'll use his wand to cast "aguamenti" on her.... I really hope Kally doesn't go to Pax for flirting advice.

[2] I looked up TP to make sure there weren’t any extra letters to it, and I found there is a wikihow entry on toilet papering someone’s house, down to proper throwing and stealth techniques. Pax, I know you and Mattias are out there, giggling behind some computer screen. I will find you.