Chapter Text
Waking up with no memories in a tent in the middle of the desert curled up to a blond he didn't know was the only thing Percy remembered. Because he had amnesia and this had just happened to him.
The boy stirred after a moment and woke up.
He jerked back. “Hello. Who are you?” He spoke with an accent that Percy knew was from somewhere that Percy was not, though he didn’t remember where that place was.
“I don’t remember. You?”
He looked at me, as if thinking what he knew me from. “Well, I remember a name, but there’s a girl attached to it. Reyna.”
“I remember the same.” Percy told him, and he blinked slowly. His eyes, which were electric blue, shone in the darkness of the tent. “Well, a girl named Annabeth. She's blonde. Like you. But with gray eyes.”
“I’m blond?”
“Yes. With electric blue eyes. Do you remember what Reyna looks like?”
“She has black hair. She looks kind of like you, but she has darker skin. And brown eyes.”
“What do I look like?” I tilted my head, curiosity overtaking me.
The boy chewed on his lip as he looked me over, and Percy noticed a scar on his lip. How did he get hurt? Was that why we were here? Were they connected?
“Black hair. Green eyes. Well, more blue-green I guess. Tan. You have a gray streak in your hair. Here.” The boy reached out and tugged on a lock of Percy’s hair.
“Well you have a scar on your lip here.” Percy put his finger on the scar.
“So who do we think we are? Or Annabeth and Reyna?”
“Well Annabeth is my girlfriend.”
“Reyna was mine. She kind of looks like your sister.”
“And Annabeth kind of looks like yours… Were we dating each other’s siblings.”
“Well it must be,” said Jason. “That must be how we know each other. What’s your name?”
“Well, I remember the name Percy.”
“And I remember Jason.”
“But are those our names?” Percy asked. Do we have any evidence we don’t remember each other’s names? Like how other people use your names more often. Maybe I use Percy for you, and you use Jason for me.”
“What makes a lot of sense.” Jason said. “But for now let’s make them our names. We can change it up if we find evidence that you’re Jason and I’m Percy.”
Percy pushed open the flap of the tent. Outside it was brighter, but not quite a day. There was water close by, though how Percy knew he didn’t know. There wasn't an ocean, but a lake, or possibly just a pond.
The land around them was just plains and desert with no people for miles except for them, their tent, and a pile of supplies, like food and a change of clothes. There was a fire pit, but it looked perfect, as if it was fake. And it was perfectly unused.
Jason was out of the tent now and was staring at the sky. “It’s going to rain soon.” He whispered. His fingers twitched as he looked up.
“Why do you know?”
“I don’t know. But it is.”
Percy hummed. “There’s water that way. Not close but not far.”
“Freshwater?” Jason asked, looking through the packs.
“Drinkable water,” said Percy. “What’s in there?”
“Clothes. Not a lot, but some. Food too. Enough for a couple weeks if we eat once a day.”
“What do the clothes look like?”
“Jeans, purple shirts, and orange shirts.” Jason held up the shirts. “They say stuff on them.”
“I can’t read them, I’m dyslexic.” Percy said automatically, though he didn’t know how he knew that.
“Well it says Camp Half-Blood. I can’t read this one, the font is atrocious.”
“Camp Jupiter.” Percy said after reading it.
“You can read this one?” Jason sounded surprised.
“Yeah.” Percy said, confused.
“Well, then you must be the Camp Jupiter guy, and I must be the Camp Half-Blood guy.” Jason reasoned. He looked down. “Deos.”
“What?”
Jason held out his arm to show Percy a tattoo on his arm, an eagle with 12 uniform lines beneath it.
“Were you in a cult?”
“Maybe. You must have been too, because your sister is, and presumably my sister, and cults generally don’t let you date outside the cult.”
“So why don’t I have a tattoo?” Percy started to look over his arm, searching.
“Maybe they represent accomplishments or something in the cult. Or maybe only the CHB branch does these. You have a necklace.” Jason tugged on the necklace around Percy’s neck and Percy reached up to touch it.
“Huh. I do.”
“And the necklace has symbols. Maybe representing each accomplishment? Though what all these could mean is a mystery.”
Percy nodded. He and Jason moved around each other, changing out of their current clothes, which were a plain white t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, and into their shirts and jeans. Jason managed to pull off the orange look, somehow, and Percy had to admit he looked nice in the purple and yellow of the shirt. Especially when Jason looked at him and said he looked nice.
“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Percy asked him.
“Well, I don’t remember.” he joked.
“Bit early for those jokes.” said Percy, though he couldn’t help but crack a smile.
“But like, she’s not here, and I don’t know anything about her. For all I know we broke up.”
“Good point.” Percy said. “Same with Annabeth. Annabeth sounds like a cult name.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Jason sighed and started fiddling with a coin.
“Where did you find that?” Percy asked, grabbing his arm and looking at it. “This is gold. We can sell this. Get money.”
Jason looked down. “Good idea.” He flipped the coin while in thought and both boys jumped when it turned into a spear. “Deos.”
“Not selling it then.” said Percy, pulling off his pants to put on a pair of jeans. Jason looked at him, then abruptly turned away. “A pen?” Percy asked, pulling out a pen.
“Looks like a shitty ball point.” said Jason, taking it from Percy. “Ανακλυσμός. Anaklysmós. Riptide.”
“You can read Greek?” Percy looked at Jason in awe.
“Yeah. Not well, but I can. Like how this coin is inscribed with Latin. IVLIVS. Divine Ceaser.” Jason pointed. “See.”
“Cool.” Percy took the pen and uncapped it.
“Is that a sword?” said Jason.
“Yeah. A medium length xiphos. Looks like bronze.”
“So… what should we do?” asked Jason after a moment.
“Well, we should try and find help.” Percy said. “Maybe a… a wilderness school.”
“A what?”
“They’re these horrific places. They aren’t real schools. They’re survival camps. Bad kids get sent there. They’re kidnapped and basically abused. No, not just basically. They are. Kids get put in all sorts of horrific scenarios.”
“How… Do you think you went to one?” Jason looked very uncertain abruptly, looking at Percy, worried.
“No. But I think I was threatened with it.” Percy shuddered. “I don’t know though. Maybe.”
“Okay, first things first, we should pack up our stuff and make our way to the place with the water. We need to set up far enough away that animals won’t come for us. And we need to move quickly. Because it’s going to rain soon, and if we were kidnapped, which I suspect we were, then our kidnappers could be back any second.”
“Smart.” Percy said. He went back to the tent and pulled everything out, packing it into the bag. He disassembled the tent expertly.
“Do you think we ran away?” asked Jason as he filled in the fire pit. “From the cult?”
“Maybe,” said Percy. “Probably.” He lifted his tent bag and put his pack over his back, Jason doing the same. “Let’s go.”
Jason nodded and looked around, feeling uneasy. “Yeah. Let’s go.”