Uniting As The Ten- Part Two Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter Five

Jason's POV:

I swear to gods if I ever see Bryce Lawrence again...

"Leave her alone." I order Max/Bryce, who shakes her head.

"Sorry, Jason. But she's a bit too useful to let go." Max replies before disappearing out of thin air. Invisibility. It's still completely unfair that Bryce can use Max's legacies while controlling her. It just sucks.

Ivan and I back up a bit and scan the room, but there's so sign of Max. She's light on her feet, and gods is she sneaky, even when Bryce isn't controlling her. She's pretty sly and cunning, I'll give her that. I grip my sword tightly as I continue to look for her.

After a few tense moments, there's talking from behind us.

"That's sad." Max says. Ivan and I both jump up and whip around to see Max standing on the ceiling with her anti-gravity, staring down at us with an amused smirk. Her bright red curls hang around her head.

"Bryce, what do you want?" I ask Max/Bryce, who smirks at my question. Max shrugs her shoulders, which looks odd when she's upside down.

"Revenge, of course. And we need a certain son of Hades to allow us to communicate with Setràkus Ra so we can get Max to resurrect him." Max explains nonchalantly, jumping off from the ceiling and landing gracefully (pun not intended) on the floor right in front of Ivan and I.

"You're not going to get Nico." I reply coldly and the smirk on Max's face looks so unnatural on her.

"We'll see about that." A sickly familiar voice calls from behind. I whip around along with Ivan and it's the last person I'd expect- and want- to see standing in the doorway.

"Octavian? H-How?" I ask, then glance back at Max behind me. Bryce forced her to resurrect him while he was controlling her.

"Yeah, Jackson can be helpful." Octavian replies, smirking at Ivan and I.

"Leave her alone." Ivan orders Octavian, his hands clenching into fists. Octavian chuckles evilly at Ivan.

"Hi, Ivan. It's good to see you again." Octavian drawls, stepping towards Ivan with his Imperial gold sword drawn. He's wearing a dark blue t-shirt, jeans, and a black Mogadorian trench coat, which makes me want to punch him even more.

And then my mind flashes to what Max told us all in the mess hall of the Argo ll, what Octavian did to her. He tortured her with fire, burning her for revenge and information.

My anger fuels to a horrifying fury I've only felt once before; when Bryce tortured Max using my body. What is up with these traitor demigods and torturing Max?

"Leave us alone." Ivan growls, gripping his Mog sword tightly. His cold glare at Octavian is ten times colder and harsher than any look he has ever given me, and it's honestly pretty intimidating. I kind of like it.

"No can do, Ivan." Max says from behind, and apparently the sound of Max's voice causes Ivan to lose focus, cause he has a far-away look in his eyes, and Octavian senses his distance. He raises his gold sword and places the tip right under Ivan's chin, just barely digging it into his neck. I respond by holding up my sword and pointing it at Octavian's side and Max behind me points her Mog sword at my back. Octavian chuckles darkly at me.

"You can stab me, but remember that Bryce won't hesitate to hurt Max, and she can always bring me back." Octavian tells me, which catches me off guard. He kills Ivan, I kill him and Max kills me, then resurrects Octavian and gets tortured by Bryce when he wakes her up again. They win either way.

Ivan glances at me, then glances down at Octavian's side.

"Drop your sword, Ivan." Octavian orders Ivan, who hesitates before dropping it. Octavian then turns to me with a smirk. "You too, Grace."

I bite my lip but drop my sword next to Ivan's when Octavian digs his sword a bit deeper into his neck. Octavian smirks again, a proud look on his face. Gods I want to slap that right off him.

"I kind of feel like getting rid of you, Ivanick." Octavian states nonchalantly, which adds the gasoline to my flame of anger. We do what he wants and he still kills Ivan. No, not on my watch.

Ivan scowls at Octavian but doesn't do anything. I know that he can't, he'll get killed either way. Octavian digs his sword a bit more into Ivan's neck and I've had enough of that schist for now.

The moment Max lets her sword fall from my back, I raise my leg and kick Octavian's stomach. He shouts in pain, stumbling back a bit. Ivan lunges at him while I grab my sword from the ground and turn around to face Max. She's extremely calm and doesn't do anything or try to stop me. She has no reaction when I raise my sword and rest the tip under her chin, just like Octavian did to Ivan- just barely digging it into her neck. Instead, she drops her sword and raises her hand out towards me.

I know what she's going to do, so I take my sword off her neck and lunge at her, slamming her back into the wall behind her. I hate to do it, but I have to make sure that it's painful, and it works. The wind is audibly knocked out of her and I place the blade of my sword against her throat again, this time horizontally. I pin her to the wall by slamming my free hand onto her chest- a little too harshly- and she gasps in pain when her back is slammed into the wall again.

"Jason?"

She sounds confused, a bit hurt. I look back down at her and her bright green eyes have returned to that dark appearance, but there's a confused look in them now, and the brightness is a bit duller now that her friend is pinning her to a wall and holding a sword against her throat, but I know that Bryce has stopped controlling her for now.

"Max, I..." I start, taking my sword off her throat and backing away from her. She doesn't ask any questions. Instead, she looks behind me at Octavian and Ivan dueling each other. I hear a gasp of pain and I turn around to see Octavian's gold sword right into Ivan's side. Ivan didn't have his sword. He was defenseless.

I growl at Octavian, who has a proud, smug smirk on his face. He takes out his sword and Ivan stumbles back, holding his bloody side. He falls back and I rush up and catch him, dragging him away from Octavian. Max glares at him, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides.

"I thought you hated the idea of the Mogs destroying earth." Max tells Octavian, a steely cold edge in her voice. Octavian shrugs.

"Not really. I hate the idea of the Mogs destroying Camp Jupiter. Camp Half-Blood though?" Octavian chuckles darkly, a sinister aura to him. "I made a deal with them. I have a feeling they'll be marching down to Camp Half-Blood very soon."

Max freezes in place, her bright green eyes wide and darker than usual. "What?" She asks, and I can tell that she meant to yell it at Octavian, but it comes out as a terrified whisper. Octavian smirks at her quiet, vulnerable moment.

My anger fuels again and I can feel a tug on my gut as I glare at Octavian, and before I know it, I'm controlling the winds once again. Octavian is lifted off the ground, a confused look on his face. He yells in surprise as I throw him against the wall, making sure he bangs his head against it. He's knocked out cold and I drop his unconscious body on the floor.

Max rushes to Ivan and I, dropping to her knees next to us. Ivan's breathing heavily, his face twisted in pain.

"How many more times am I going to be stabbed today?" Ivan pants, lifting his bloody hands off his side so Max can heal it.

"This is the last one, I promise." I reply, softly squeezing his shoulder as Max heals his stab wound. Max notices me gently grabbing his shoulder in a reassuring tone and looks up at us with a raised eyebrow.

"It's uh...hard to explain." I reply, quickly retreating my hand from Ivan's shoulder. Max nods her head, wiping her bloody hands on her orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt after healing Ivan. I look back up at her and she's biting her lip, breathing shakily.

"They're going to destroy Camp Half-Blood."

-INSIGHT-

The 'call of help' Six felt from Marina, Ella, Crayton and Hector Ricardo in Spain and the one Max felt from Eight, Marina, Nine and Six in Florida is a legacy both Max and Six have. They can both sense when a group of people are in trouble and where it is happening.