Protectors 2 (Yes this is an AU)

"Mrs. Grace, you're on in five."

Percy Jackson watched careful as the stage manager left the room checking things off his clipboard in a hurry. He was leaning against the far wall, arms crossed, his gun hidden in his jacket.

Piper Grace sighed dramatically and made eye contact with him through her spotlight mirror. She was undoubtedly pretty, with her kaleidoscope colored eyes that captured the hearts of more than one psycho fan of hers. Percy couldn't tell you how many times he had to drag creepy men (and sometimes women) away from the widowed rising star.

"That's my cue, isn't it?" Piper smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. It hardly ever had in all the time he'd known her.

"Break a leg, Sparkles!" Percy gave her a thumbs up.

She got up, her shimmering white dress catching the light perfectly. "Are you sure you two will be okay, here? It's a little cramped-"

"We'll be fine, Pipes," Percy placed a hand on her shoulder, "It's you I'm worried about. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm already dressed up, aren't I? It's been eleven years, Percy. I can't keep hiding in the shadows. Jason....Jason wouldn't want me to."

Quite the contrary actually. Jason very much wanted her to keep hiding in the shadows. But he was just a dead voice on a cell phone that Piper shouldn't hear. Besides, Jason had told Percy before, once Piper set her mind to things they usually happened.

"Then go get them!" Percy said.

Piper nodded confidentially, she strikes to the door, opening it, and then glanced back towards the only other occupant in the room, "Tristan, behave!"

The door clicked shut and Percy wished more than anything he'd gone with her. But he couldn't be in two places at once. Piper had made it clear he was grounded. Piper also made it clear that she wanted Tristan protected more than her.

The second the door shut Tristan whirled around to glare at Percy. "I can't believe you!"

Percy took a deep breath attempting to remember where he stashed the Advil because he was going to need it for this reoccurring argument.

Tristan had his mother's brown hair, but he kept it cropped short like his father. His wild blue eyes often snagged the hearts of his fellow six graders though he was faithfully married to his notebook that he carried everywhere. Today, though, he was sporting a nice dark black eye. It seemed that Percy was the only one that his charming smile didn't work on, and that almost always led to this fight.

"Tristan, please don't do this today." Percy begged tiredly, but the kid wasn't listening.

"You told my mom! Do you have any idea how worried she is now? What a jerk move!"

Percy rummaged through one of Piper's side bags, looking for that medicine. Was it in the purple one with green stripes or the teal one with white accents? "Tristan, I am well aware of your mother's stress level. It's not my fault that you decided to get yourself expelled! You're twelve years old now, that's old enough to take responsibility."

Tristan stood up violently shoving over the chair he'd been sitting in. "Are you kidding me?"

Percy found the Advil. It was in the pink hand bag. Go figure.

"Take responsibility? I'll admit that I threw the first punch at Dylan, but no one even bothered to ask why!" Tristan fumed, "Least of all, you, Percy! You're such a horrible excuse for a father figure! Can't you defend me at all?"

Percy inhaled sharply, squeezing the To-Go bottle way harder than was necessary. He looked up at Tristan a fire burning in his raging eyes.

"Don't," He warned. "Don't go there."

Tristan swallowed hard and looked away. He slumped to the ground and picked up his pencil and notebook. He made a choking sound, and brushed his face with his right hand. Percy sighed hanging his head.

He capped the medicine bottle without taking any tablets out. Then Percy slid onto the ground next to the crying Tristan.

"Why did you punch Dylan?"

Tristan sniffled, "He said I was just a stupid rich kid and my mom probably paid off the teachers so I could stay in school."

"You know that's not true." Percy pointed out.

"Yeah, I ignored him, but then Emily told him off for me and Dylan called her a bitch and told her to..." Tristan's pencil tip broke on the page and he put it down, "to go find someone else to sleep with."

Percy raised an eyebrow. But then he nodded with a small smile on his face. "So you punched him?"

"Yeah." Tristan looked up at Percy with wide eyes, "Percy, he didn't even get in trouble because he's on the football team! They just expelled me. It's not fair!"

Percy ruffled his hair, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it." He promised he took out his phone. "That was really honorable of you, you know? That's something your father would've done."

Tristan sniffled, "You think so?"

"I know so." Percy grinned and ruffled his hair, "He would have done anything to protect someone. I trusted him with my life."

Tristan smiled, like that meant the world to him. It probably did. Tristan loved the stories of his father's bravery.

Percy's phone stated buzzing in his hand, and the default ringtone flowed into the air. Percy looked surprised at the pictureless Caller ID.

"Who's Grace?" Tristan asked, "Your girlfriend?"

Percy looked at him wide eyed. He couldn't stifle a laugh. The idea was so preposterous he slid his finger over the green answer button.

"Hello, Grace, my lovely, beautiful, ever faithful girlfriend!"

"Haha, Jackson." The male voice answered loud enough for Tristan to hear and go red. "You're hilarious."

"That's what they tell me, Blondie." Percy winked at his charge and stood up walking a couple paces away so they could have a more private conversation. "What's up?"

"I got a text from Nico and Frank. Did you get one?"

"I haven't heard from them in like nine years." Percy lowered his voice so Tristan couldn't hear, "not since the Times Square incident."

Jason breathed heavily into the phone, probably rubbing his forehead. That had been a bad night. It was only two years into Percy's new job and Piper was insistent on taking Tristan to see New York. The monsters made an attack on her and it got ugly.

Tristan was only three so he didn't remember much and Piper didn't want him to. But Percy sill had the scars on his arm and his leg and in his memory.

Likewise, the eleven years of Project Protectors for Jason was not a paradise. Annabeth and Luke got attacked around the same time as them, but it seemed for a while the Monsters forgot about them and their ghost stories.

"I got a heads up. Somethings going on tonight. I'm suppose to pass it on to you."

Percy glanced up at Tristan. The kid was writing in his notebook again, tapping or counting with his right hand on the table. Not for the first time, Percy wondered exactly what he was writing in there.

"Any guesses? Clues? Hints?" Percy whispered, "Dude, I'm not even with Piper right now. I'm with Tristan in the prep room."

"None." Jason let out a shaky breath, "Perce, I don't know-"

"I'll call you back!" Percy yelled, cutting him off. He dropped the phone and lunged forward covering Tristan with his body.

Milliseconds later the tiny red dots on the table in front of Tristan turned into bullets and blasted apart the window, showering both of them in glass fragments. Percy kicked over the thick wooden table. Tristan screamed. Percy dragged him up and rather forcefully shoved him safely behind the cover.

"Stay down!" He shouted.

Percy whipped out his gun, snapping the safety off and pointing it towards the window. Three shots in the dark. Three unidentifiable bodies slammed to the floor. More followed. Tristan screamed again covering his ears against the noise.

"Get the kid!"

"Like Hell!" Percy rounded off another couple shots ducking down as a bullet graced his ear. There was no way they were laying a finger on Jason's son.

"Tristan," Percy yelled to him, "You're going to have to trust me, okay? I'm not going to let you get hurt!"

Tears were flooding down the young kids face but he nodded anyway. Percy gave him a reassuring smile, "When I say run, run to the door and don't look back okay? I'll be right behind you."

He nodded.

"Good." Percy stood up and pulled the trigger, "Run!"

Tristan scrambled toward the door, nearly tripping over a toppled dressing track that held Piper's other outfits. Percy grabbed his arm and pushed him forward still shooting the Monsters behind him. "Go!"

Three bullets hit the mirror beside them throwing more glass into the air. Tristan grabbed the door knob and flung it open before stumbling into the deserted hallway.

Percy yanked the door closed after them. He grabbed a chair and jammed it under the handle. Almost immediately a pane of the wooden door cracked. Percy grabbed a terrified screaming Tristan towards the end of the hall yelling for the security officers. The door wouldn't hold them for long.

"Be honest!" Percy told Tristan, "You thought you were just going to be grounded tonight for getting expelled."

"I'd rather be writing sentences!" He screamed.

"Me too, kid." Percy exhaled. "Me too."

Up ahead the security crew came rushing towards them, carrying guns. Percy dragged Tristan right through them. Towards the back where a man was waiting for them, with a very distressed Piper and a Frank Zhang trying to calm her.

"Tristan!" She screamed when she saw them, "Oh my God!" She flung her arms around him nearly crushing the life out of the poor kid. Her mascara was running but she didn't seem to care. "You're alright now!"

Frank looked back up at Percy who was breaking heavily leaning against the wall. His side was on fire, drowning in agony. When he pulled back his hand it came back red and sticky.

"Percy, you're bleeding!" Frank exclaimed.

Percy smiled at him, ignoring the gaping wound. He looked at Piper and her son, "Are you alright, Mrs. Grace?"

She looked murderous, "How dare you ask me that, Percy Jackson!" She flung her head around, "Medic! MEDIC!"

A woman came running up with a hefty first aid kit giving him brief instructions. Percy grinned at the ceiling. They were safe. That was all that mattered.

***

"Perce!"

Jason Grace stared at the BlackBerry in his hand. The call was cut off. The screen blinked twice with the remnants of Percy's last name and number before changing to his screen saver: a stapler.

Luke thought it would be funny to steal his phone, take random pictures and then use them at backgrounds and Caller ID's. Jason had caught him right before he got to Percy's number. Geez that kid was a hand full.

Jason took a deep breath and looked over to where Annabeth Jackson was having a dinner date with a applicant to her thriving architect firm. From what Jason could see it was going well between the two women and now Annabeth could finally relax about all the paper work.

Jason was sitting on a bench in the central park well within reach of both Annabeth and Luke, who was impressing his friends with his frisbee skills in the park. It was getting late though and sooner or later Jason was going to have to pull him away.

He steadied his shaking hands reminding himself that Percy was a soldier and he would do anything to protect Tristan.

"Buzzkill, Thalia, that's what you are!"

Jason looked up at the blond almost teenager and his friends. Luke was like a beacon in the settings sun. His green eyes sparkled with laughter. You had to be blind to not know he was head over heels for the dark haired girl next to him.

"I don't want to be out when it gets dark, idiot." Thalia flicked his ear, but Luke was still grinning. "You wanna head over to my house? We can totally keep the party going there!"

The rest of group cheered. Luke's smile faded slightly as he locked eyes with Jason across the clearing. He got that look in his eyes. The begging look that he'd perfected since he was five.

"Please?" He mouthed.

Jason glanced towards his mother; her laugh had cascaded across the park. Jason shook his head and tapped his watch. Luke scowled at him.

"Sorry, Thals," He said, "I'll see you later."

"Wha-Luke!" Thalia said but he didn't stop for her, or any of his friends. He stormed through the park, blowing right by Jason.

"Asshole." He huffed just loud enough for Jason to hear.

Jason threw his hands up. And sighed defeatedly. He went after the love sick boy, "Luke! Luke, come on!"

Luke kept walking shoving his hand into his pockets. Jason hated when he did that. It meant he was beyond irritated and almost impossible to reason with. Annabeth did the same thing by crossing her arms.

"Luke!" Jason pull a heavy hand on his shoulder dragging him to a halt mid pace. Luke shoved his arm off, grinding his teeth.

"Why?" Luke asked, "Why not?"

"You know why not." Jason sighed.

Luke huffed, "All I want is to be a normal kid! A normal life. I want to go to my friend's houses, stay out after dark, drink alcohol!"

"You're eleven and ten months, Luke. No alcohol."

The boy sputtered on like it didn't matter. Or maybe he just didn't care. "I want to be able to make my own choices! Not have to ask permission to breath the freaking air!"

"Try to understand-"

"Understand what? My dad was an idiot and got himself killed and now everyone's paranoid I'll be next?" Luke snorted, "yeah whatever!" He tugged his jacket tighter and turned away. His shoe collided with a rock and sent it flying into a dozen metal trashcans.

Jason took a deep breath. "Don't call your father an idiot. He was brave. A Hell of a lot more than I will ever be-"

"So what?! Is that what I'm suppose to believe? Dad was so brave he left my pregnant mom with me to go get himself killed?" Luke whipped around, "Doesn't sound like bravery to me!"

Jason rubbed his temples.

"Why...Why did Dad leave me?" Luke's voice broke into a sob. "Why can't I be a normal kid, with normal parents, and a normal life?"

Jason opened his mouth but no words came out. He froze. They were down a side alley now, not one of Jason's favorite places to linger. Luke hugged himself, trying to stop the swell of tears that were escaping. Annabeth was still back at the outdoor cafe, but they were cleaning up now.

Something wasn't right.

Jason could feel it.

Voices came from all over the place. The streets were crowded on evenings like this. Street lights flickered on and distant sirens wailed.

Tic....Tic...Tic...

"Luke! GET DOWN!" Jason yelled, diving forward.

The narrow wall exploded.

Heat blasted right through them. The force hit Jason and knocked him to the ground. Bricks and concrete went flying. The noise of the night was replaced by chaotic screaming.

Jason blinked his eyes open. Dust was clouding over him like a blanket. Small fires Dodgers on the edge of his vision.

Luke.

He spit blood out of his mouth from where a brick had made solid contact. Jason tried to get up, gasping in pain. His leg was caught under a block of mortar. "Damn!"

"Luke!" Jason yelled.

The figure of the teenager didn't move. He'd landed just out of reach of Jason. A trail of blood running down the right side of his face.

"Damnit! Luke!" Jason twisted around trying to move his foot. He was helpless if he couldn't get out. The block shifted barely.

Heavy sounds of boots came plodding down the alleyway. Jason could just see the imprints of the Monster's logo.

"Get the kid!"

"Over my dead body!" Jason shoved the block with all his might and it tumbled to the side. He leapt to his feet, standing in between the Monsters and Luke's unconscious body.

The Monsters charged.

And Jason did what he did best.

He grabbed the arm of the least and snapped it back breaking the grip of his gun. With his other hand he revealed his pistol and found for targets before he broke in sweat. The monster swung at him with a fist the size of a car. Jason just barely avoided it.

The wall behind him broke out bullets the wind ripping though Jason's lose jacket. He stumbled and the next monster in line cut him down with a left hook to his jaw and a kick to his stomach.

Jason choked on blood. Scarlet rolled off his tongue splattering the ground.

He pulled the trigger twice on two more targets before they could even get close to laying a finger on Luke Jackson.

"Hands up! This is the police!"

Jason breathed out heavily as the red and blue lights came to the rescue. The monsters fled. Jason fell to his knees. Unable to breathe.

"Jazon!"

The all too familiar voice reached his ears. He didn't have to look up to know that it was Nico Di Angelo in the flesh. The shadowy pale boy knelt next to him.

"Are you alright?" He asked. "Mz. Jackson iz screaming her head off for you two."

Jason spit out blood, "She's okay?"

"Worry about yourself, Jazon." He scolded.

Jason ignored him looking back at Luke. The cut would leave a scar but it wasn't that bad. He was alive and that was all that mattered for now.

"I am going to zet up a new safe location." Nico said. "Somewhere very safe."

***

When the call came, Piper was in the middle of a screen shoot for her newest movie, Come Back Home. It was a tragic love story about a military family when the dad goes off to war. Percy thought it to be a little too close to home. But piper was playing the lead role, the lonely wide who spent most of the movie staring into the distance and wishing for her husband back.

Percy was reading the play script for lack of better things to do. It was not the type of movie Percy would be willing to spent eleven dollars to see in the theater.

Piper's phone started ringing.

"Hello, Piper Grace speaking," Piper answered tiredly. Almost immediately she shot awake though, and her voice jumped an octave, "Wait, he did what?"

"I'm going to kill him." Piper paused and listened again. "Yes, sir, we'll be there as soon as possible. I am so sorry for all of this."

She ended the call and rubbed her eyes. She signaled the set director to give her five minutes. And then she stomped right over to Percy.

"He did it again." She said, "That was the school, Chiron's Academy for the Gifted. The principal just informed me Tristan got into another fight, with that same kid as before. He's requesting a parent/student/teacher conference to sort this out." Piper ran a hand through her hair running the skillfully done curls that the makeup girl had done. "I've got to go."

"Pipes, you're on set. You can't go!" Percy said.

"Well what do you suggest?" She snapped, frustrated.

"I'll go. You've got dozens of bodyguards here, and I'm really only in the way. Let me go and handle this mess. It'll be fine."

Piper tossed a hand up, "Fine. Fine, whatever! But when he gets home I'm grounding him until his seventeen!"

Percy smiled and shooed her back to the set. Then he pocketed his phone and headed towards his car, unsure if he should be thanking Tristan or backhanding the side of his head for going back on the promise he'd made when he started the new school.

***

Annabeth was in a board meeting when the call came through. She actually stepped out of the room to take it. Though Jason suspected it was more along the lines of because the rest of the board were compete idiots who had been arguing with her for the past two hours over a building job.

"Luke did what?" Annabeth asked, shocked, "but he's never- yes of course sir." Her gray eyes flared with anger. "I understand. I'm sure there's a good reason for all of this."

Annabeth snapped her phone shut and sighed like she was an eighty year old trapped in a thirty three year old's body. "Jason!" She called.

Jason appeared by her side as if he hadn't been standing nearby the entire time.

"Luke got into more trouble, just like how Percy use to do all the time." Annabeth sighed, "Can you do me a favor? It's a parent/student/teacher conference but I need to get this deal sorted out or next week will totally be fried and so will my holiday with Luke be."

Jason nodded, "uh sure." His new glasses slid down his nose and he hand to push them back up. (Turns out the impact of his head against the brick wall a couple weeks ago had damaged his eye sight. Yippy.) "Need anything else?"

Annabeth gave him a sad smile and he knew what she was thinking. The one thing he could give her but shouldn't ever. Percy Jackson.

"Right, so, Luke?" Jason sighed, "I thought he'd fit in better at the new school."

"Me too." Annabeth brushed back her golden curls. "Chiron's Academy for the Gifted was suppose to be the prefect school. I just hope he doesn't get expelled for this."