The Son of Poseidon
Jason Grace was anxious. The Summer Solstice had passed two days ago and they were just leaving on the Argo II now, because something had gone wrong with the ship. Leo and his cabin had been spending all their time in Bunker Nine trying to get it prepared for the trip. But, that wasn't really what was bothering him. What was bothering him was that his memory of his life before was scarily dim. He could barely remember the names of his friends or the faces that went with them. Every so often he'd have a flashback but no details.
His friends had stood by him the entire time. Leo was using his comedic humour to try and lighten up the atmosphere and lower its severity. It wasn't all that helpful, but Jason appreciated it all the same. Piper was more understanding. The thing was he couldn't help but feel guilty every time he was around her. He didn't know why exactly, but he thought the name Reyna had something to do with it. He concentrated on her name and all he got was a blurry image of her face, with long dark hair and eyes. She was wearing purple and he thought, though he wasn't sure, that she might have some dogs. He wasn't sure what Reyna was to him, but he hoped it wouldn't hurt Piper. She was his friend now, along with Leo.
He was standing near the bow of the ship. Piper had charmspoken Annabeth to get some sleep. She had been awake and helping non-stop to get the ship in the air, desperate to find her boyfriend. He felt slightly guilty because Juno had exchanged Percy with him.
Percy Jackson. The son of Poseidon, the Earthshaker, Stormbringer and a whole lot of other titles. He couldn't go far without hearing his name. This guy was everything around here. He was a year older than Jason and was the child of a prophecy that almost killed him last year. Every night at the campfire, the senior councillors and older campers would regale them with tales of his bravery and loyalty. How he defeated Medusa and retrieved Zeus's Masterbolt when he was twelve. How he braved the Sea of Monsters to help save his friend the satyr and Jason's sister's spirit trapped in the pine tree. How he went to save Artemis and held up the sky, the Battle of the Labyrinth, the Fight for Olympus and so many other tales. Jason knew somehow that he had done some things back before. He had defeated the titan Krios after all and the Trojan Sea Monster. Bu Percy had defeated four titans and a lot more monsters than him. He couldn't help but feel intimidated.
He yawned. Hmm...he had been up almost as long as Leo helping the ship into the air. Maybe just five minutes...
He jolted upright. He looked around at his surroundings. It was a beach, wait, and not just any beach. It was Long Beach at Camp Half-Blood. But why would he be here. He was a son of Jupiter and here he was right next to his Uncle Neptune's realm. He got the feeling that Romans didn't really like Neptune. He knew that he sure as Hades was wary and slightly scared of Neptune. This really wouldn't be his choice of environment.
"Hey!" Jason nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned and saw a teen standing there. He had inky black hair and eyes that held back all the oceans. He was lean but muscled. His sea green eyes bored down into his own sky blues.
"Uh..." Jason stammered unintelligently.
The teen laughed, but didn't seem to be doing it in a malicious way. More like he was amused. He reached out his hand. "Hi, my name's Percy, Percy Jackson."
Jason could only stare. In front of him was a legend. A kind of hero everyone aspired to be, including himself. Percy raised an eyebrow and he flushed.
"Oh. Jason Grace." He reached out and took his hand. It was calloused and had a strong grip.
Percy raised his eyebrows, "Grace, as in Thalia Grace?"
"My sister," Jason replied trying to not let his composure crack.
Percy grinned. "Cool. That makes you my cousin. I didn't know Thalia had a brother."
"Yeah well she didn't really know I was alive..." he trailed off. "Wait, you remember who Thalia is? Shouldn't you be in the middle of this whole identity crisis like me?" he accused.
Percy grimaced slightly. "Yeah, but I drank some Gorgon's blood. Not recommended. Anyway, so I got my memories back."
Jason tried to hold back the feeling of resentment. How come he got his memories while he was still scrambling to remember names and faces? Apparently he didn't hide it very well.
Percy smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, sorry you didn't get yours back yet. All your friends here at Camp Jupiter will understand though."
That jolted him into talking. "How is it at camp? Is Reyna alright?" He wasn't entirely sure why he asked that question.
Percy answered, "Yeah. We just had a battle against one of the giants and Hazel, Frank and I just came back from a quest to try and stop Gaea. I think Hazel was one of your friends. Hazel Levesque?"
Jason struggled to put a face to the name. All he got were golden eyes staring back at him. "Umm…somewhat. Does she have golden eyes?"
Percy grinned. "Yep, she'll be happy that you remember her. Speaking of camp, you don't mind that I took your position as Praetor do you? Because I'll give it back when you arrive and everything, I didn't touch any of your things it's just-"
"It's fine," he interrupted. Inside it wasn't as alright. He didn't like the idea of anyone else taking what's his. But Percy was a hard person to get mad at with his goofy smile and laidback attitude.
"So how is at back at Camp Half-Blood?" Percy asked him.
"It's different than what I remember. It's really nice though." Jason wasn't sure what else he could say.
"Yeah, it's a lot different than Camp Jupiter. How's Wise Girl doing?" Percy asked.
Jason shrugged. "She's fine. She really misses you." A frown crossed Percy's face. "She's been driving everyone nuts in her eagerness to find you."
Percy smiled wistfully. "Yeah, she does that sometimes. Must be driving her crazy not knowing what's out there. She hates not knowing things."
Jason laughed. He could imagine Annabeth getting completely frustrated with her happy-go-lucky boyfriend. Suddenly, clouds of mist, the non-mythical kind though it could be the mythical kind, began to gather and block his view of Percy.
Percy stood up. "Guess one of us is waking up. I'll see you soon." The fog converged on Jason completely as he watched Percy jump into the sea.
"Wait! What do you mean? Percy!" He jolted up and smacked his forehead on someone else's. He opened his eyes and saw gray eyes in front of his peripheral vision.
"Are you alright?" Annabeth asked. "You were yelling things out in your sleep." Piper and Leo were staring at him as well. The sky was light blue so it must be morning.
"Uhh… yeah I'm fine." He said. He told them about his dream. Annabeth's eyes were getting brighter.
She hmmphed when he told her about what Percy had said about her, but her eyes were shining. "He remembers me, thank the gods. I'm going to kill him if he does something like this again."
Jason wondered how on earth these people were a couple if they liked to threaten each other so much. Of course he didn't dare voice that thought aloud for fear of receiving a certain very, very sharp celestial bronze dagger up his podex.
She stood up. "I'm going to IM Chiron. He'll want to be ready for when we return." She ran off.
Piper and Leo were staring at him with awed eyes. "What was he like?" Piper asked. All three of them were completely floored by the stories of Percy Jackson. Percy was their idol and Jason had started to see why so many peopled followed him. He had this aura around him that drew people in. Percy Jackson didn't choose to lead the campers, the campers chose him. Jason wished that he would be able to inspire such loyalty. He remembered that he was praetor back at his old camp, but he was fairly certain it was because no one truly wanted Octavian in charge. But, here at the Greek Camp he was put in a position of leadership but he knew that they were only following him because they had to. Annabeth was the person they looked to for leadership and once Percy was back, he doubted any of them, other than Leo and Piper, would chose him over Percy.
"He was a nice guy, just like Annabeth said." He told them. "I didn't get much time to talk with him but he seems okay. I don't think we'll have any problems with joining the two camps. Octavian would probably be the only person to try and create division." He said. They brightened. Secretly he wasn't as sure. Octavian was a powerful enemy with his abilities to play the crowd. He had a lot of influence. Hopefully with Percy and Reyna as praetors, it would stop him from creating too much discord.
Suddenly a voice echoed over the intercom Leo installed on the ship. "Get ready to land! We're approaching the Roman Camp!"