Author's Note: Hi! If you are reading this, it means, A. You are one of my extremely intelligent friends that have read MoA. Or, B. I decided to post this on FF.N and you are one of my first ever readers! Welcome!
If you fall in to the first category, it means I'm asking you to beta. I want this to be a fan pleasing fan fiction, so constructive criticism would be appreciated.
If you fall into the second, you don't know how honored I am to have you reading this! Please continue and leave comments with constructive criticism. Or just read. Whatever makes you happy.
Either way, enjoy my version of what will happen in HoH!
I
Jason
As the ship flew away, Jason stared down at the gaping pit below. It didn't seem right to be leaving. Not when two of the bravest people he knew could be lying dead, just out of his reach. Blaming himself was+ inevitable. In fact, probably everyone on the Argo II was doing it, but Jason was oblivious to that. All he could think about were the millions of ways he could have saved them. If he had only been faster, flown down and grabbed Annabeth allowing Percy to be pulled up, signaled Leo to fly the ship over with a rope, something, maybe his friends wouldn't be stuck in Tartarus right now.
There was that word again; Tartarus. He wasn't even sure exactly what that place was. Without their walking encyclopedia (A.K.A. Annabeth) with them, most of the other demigods seemed pretty confused by the situation as well. One thing was clear, though; whatever Tartarus was, Jason was sure it wasn't filled with rainbows and butterflies. Just one look at their most recently acquired crew member, Nico DiAngelo, confirmed that.
His eyes were dark and hollow. Once tanned skin had paled to a paper-like white. His voice sounded like he hadn't had something to drink in months, and something made him question whether that was just an impression. Jason wanted to talk to him, wanted to ask what exactly made Tartarus so terrible, but something held him back.
At first, he believed he was simply doing it out of sympathy for the guy; surely he didn't want to talk about what he had gone through. Not after two of the three people that actually knew Nico just fell right back in there. Now, he started to suspect that he didn't want to know the answer. What was so terrible that a son of Hades who had seen pretty much everything couldn't face it?
Suddenly, someone saying his name shook him from his thoughts. "Jason! Dude, I'm sure that Mars can spare you long enough for you to give us lowly earthlings a hand with stuff."
Once he realized that Leo was speaking, he almost decided to ignore him. Leo never really had something important to say. Until it hit him; he was the leader now. He had spent weeks wishing that he could lead like he used to, prove that he was better than Percy, and here was his chance. This was exactly what he had secretly wanted. So why did it feel so wrong?
"Yeah, sorry, man. Just thinking about, you know, everything. What do you need?"
Leo gestured around him. "Take a look around! Nico needs medical attention, this place needs a major clean-up, we have no clue where we're going, and there's also the slight problem of getting the Athena Parthenos to wherever the heck that needs to go!"
Jason sighed. It was going to be a long day. "Hazel, Coach, you two take care of Nico. Leo, get us on water. Frank and Piper, you guys come with me to the Mess Hall. We need to figure out where we're going next."
As everyone set off to do their jobs, Jason headed toward the Mess Hall which was their unofficial headquarters. Leo had tried to rename it "The Red Zone" and make the infirmary the Mess Hall (They seemed to spend most of their time in there anyways.), but, surprisingly, there was a unanimous vote against it. Now, Jason kind of wished they had gone ahead with his idea. It would have brought a touch of humor into their currently depressing lives.
Frank and Piper followed him in, her hand intertwining with his own. They hadn't talked since the accident. They didn't need to. Jason also suspected that if Piper tried to talk about it, she would start crying, so it was probably for the best. He, honestly, didn't trust himself not to start crying.
"So, we need a plan. That's obvious. Anyone have any ideas?"
Frank's forced cheery tone was met with a deafening silence. No one knew what needed to happen next. Finally, Piper spoke up.
"The Doors of Death are open. Until they are closed, not much can happen. That should be our next stop."
The Doors of Death… The Doors of Death… And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.
"Wait! We can't go there next. We try to close them now, and we'll fail. And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. That's what the prophecy says. In order for us to close them, we have to get the Romans on our side. Piper, send an IM to Camp Half-Blood! Frank, go tell Leo to steer us toward Camp! I'm going to go try to talk sense into Reyna one last time."
Piper's eyes flashed with pain at this last sentence. He honestly didn't get it. He was just going to talk to her. And, on top of that, it was a necessary step in getting Percy and Annabeth back. He knew that she must already know all that. So why was she still mad at him for leaving?
"Fine. I'll go grab a drachma and use the infirmary's sink. Talk to you later, Jason," She said stiffly, striding out of the room.
Frank shrugged and did the same. Jason could tell he wasn't happy about his orders, either, but was making much more of an effort to hide it. Was anyone happy with their jobs?
"I don't think they were ever this frustrated with Percy," Jason thought, still comparing himself to the son of Poseidon. Percy was everything he wanted to be; smart, funny, powerful, brave, the list goes on! He falls into Tartarus, and everyone wants to jump in after him. Could the same be said of Jason if the roles were reversed? These thoughts continued to race restlessly through his head as he headed to his bathroom in order to IM Reyna.
