Universal

A/N: The shortest story ever written by me. Barely a headcanon.

Universal

If Leo and Hazel hadn't mentioned before, Jason would have been more surprised to find the blond lady with scarlet lips and edgy looking eyes sitting by a pile of cracked fortune cookies. After all, it wasn't every day you could look into the eyes of your dead mother, especially when your last memory of her was from when you were two years old.

He only recognized her because of the eyes. They sent a shiver that had nothing to do with anger down his spine.

"Well, well, well – if it isn't our saving Grace." She cracked a cruel smile and a cookie at the same time. "I hadn't expected to see you, I'm here for Valdez."

Jason stared at Leo who looked exhausted rather than anything else. Hazel and Frank were close to him and the three of them seemed to share a terrible secret. Nemesis was walking towards him, eyes sparking with something that made Jason want to both fight her and run away.

"You know what I love about finding demigods like you, Jason Grace?" The goddess said. "I can smell your enemies. I can feel just how many people and monsters you've angered. And I can tell it's scaring you. And being scared makes you angry. It's all delightful."

Jason dared to take a glimpse at the other people on the room. They were very busy pretending not to listen. He realized nervously that Piper wasn't there yet.

"Oh, your girlfriend." Nemesis' smirk was cold again. "You're scared aren't you? Scared she'll be another person in the list? You sons of Jupiter can't help it. I wouldn't worry if I were you."

Jason opened his mouth to protest, to say he'd never leave Piper, that he wasn't in the business of lying or hurting women, when the goddess interrupted him with her voice:

"You know, I've met the praetor girl once." She sneered. It was enough to make Jason freeze inside his skin. He hadn't any enemies whose opinion he cared about but he surely cared about his best friend. "The poor thing, right?" She laughed and Jason felt his fingers closing in a fist. Her blond hair and the fact that he could sometimes see his face on her features made his stomach turn.

"I…" He couldn't find the next word. He tried to look dignified like a good leader would but Hazel, Frank and Leo now looked miles away. Like the goddess had chosen to torture only him.

"Jason Grace." She sighed and moved her head slowly from side to side. "I quite like the list of enemies you made. You should be proud. You don't conquer anything without a fight in this world."

"Reyna is not my enemy."

Nemesis' eyes, well, his mother's eyes bored into him and he could finally feel the anger boiling up in his guts.

"Not your enemy." She pronounced every word slowly. "But for how long, you silly child?" Jason felt the room spin and, then, like coming out of a trance, the other three seemed to be back to earth, or maybe Jason was the one who had just gotten back, he couldn't be sure.

"Well, we should talk business." She told all of them. "Nice talking to you, Jason." She turned to talk to the others but then stopped and turned around once more.

"Oh." She said in a fake surprised tone. "Here's a nice question: who do you think your friend Reyna saw when we met?"

Jason felt his cheeks burning.

"I never meant to hurt anyone, I…"

Nemesis laughed out loud making Frank jump a little on his seat. He had no idea who she was to him but it certainly wasn't pleasant.

"Don't flatter yourself, kid." She snorted and laughed. "Typical Jupiter child!"

"Of course she sees the pirate who kidnapped her! Why would she ever see you? What is a little heartache to a girl?" He didn't know whether to feel relieved or offended but, either way, he felt very wrong for almost feeling any of these two.

Nemesis took a last glance at him:

"You made your choice already, child of Jupiter. You want to be different from the rest; you stick to it and fix things." Then she gave that line a second thought and threw him a final, pearly white smile:

"Or we can always make a nice deal."

A/N: I just like the idea of Nemesis in general and this was something I just couldn't add to any fics. I don't know. It's just a short thing anyway.