Hers are not the first eyes he meets.
He whirls after one of the very last monsters explodes into dust, his hair turned to gold in the dying light. He finds the girl he is looking for, the pretty brunette with the ever-changing eyes.
His eyes shine with fierce pride as he sees Piper not only holding on her own, but helping whoever is needing a hand. Her face is flushed with effort and she is panting, but her expression is bright and she is shining with an Aphrodite-esque charm.
The air smells of rain and blood. Red puddles are forming at the demigod's feet, painting a scene of despair and hopelessness. Every few meters or so, a broken sword or a pierced-through armor can be found reflecting the dull glow of the last rays of sun.
But Reyna knows better than to be fooled by the appearances. Once she had arrived with the Romans and Greeks reinforcements, she was relieved to see they were in time: the battle had just begun. Now they were, by far, the winning side. Reyna curls her lips slightly in a triumphant smile.
She sidesteps and strikes at the hellhound in front of her, but her attention is divided between the battle and, stupidly enough, Reyna thinks bitterly, the boy with the sky-blue eyes.
Little did she know that that would cost her dearly until it was too late.
Reyna had heard many times about History repeating itself, but it was not like she really believed it.
Jason looks over his shoulder quickly, towards Piper, but not quickly enough to block the monster's strike. He flies five, ten, fifteen meters across the field and his head hits a rock. He momentarily passes out. Reyna winces and is just about to go and run to his aid when she hears a girl's voice pierce the air. "Stop!"
It is Piper, whose desperation has gotten the best of her. Her words are powerful, full of sorcery and magic, charmspeak, they call it, the language of manipulation. Reyna knows it only too well after spending so much time with Circe. She ignores the sudden desire to drop her sword and tries to turn her attention back to the battle.
Piper runs to Jason and tries to charmspeak him awake.
Holding back a sneer, Reyna tears her eyes away from them and discovers that the same monster that attacked Jason before- a dracanae, she belives they are called- is making her way towards them at surprisingly fast speed.
"No!" this time it is her that shouts, a scream that makes its way from deep within her and escapes her blood-stained lips. The dracanae raises her spear and tilts it back just as Reyna flings herself at her. But the dracanae is quick, too quick for Reyna to be able to modify the blade's trajectory.
Jason's eyes flutter open and Piper gives a sound of triumph that could not have been any more different than the one that has just escaped her boyfriend's lips.
He cannot help but stare as the cursed blade rips its way through Reyna's torso in an explosion of red.
She falls with a dull thud. It is a taunt, a mockery of her usual grace.
Jason springs to his feet, but his head is aching badly, and the world is spinning, spinning, spinning like a twisted version of a merry-go-round.
He can feel Piper's hand on his arm but he just pushes her away harshly and starts to make his way towards his formal praetor, killing any monster that dares come into his path with an ice-cold fury. The dracanae is the first one to suffer in his rage.
Part of his brain registers what is happening around them: Percy and Annabeth fighting back to back, Leo burning away every enemy he can find, Frank swooping down as an eagle and Hazel zooming in and out of view on Arion.
But that all seems so very far away to Jason: the sounds are muffled, the images blurred. His heart is beating furiously against his ribs with a steady thump, thump, thump, one that Jason is sure is lacking on the girl's body in front of him.
Reyna is surrounded by a puddle of dark red blood, which seeps slowly into the royal purple tunic she so loved -loves-; her dark hair has long since become undone from its impeccable braid and is now spread around her, a dark halo.
Jason rolls her towards him tenderly. He feels his eyes begin to burn with unshed tears as he realizes how pale she is. He parts his lips to say something, but there is no oxygen in his shocked lungs; he has no oxygen around her.
Reyna's eyes are open, staring at him as fixedly as she can: memorizing, scrutinizing every detail of his face. She doesn't even pay attention to the spear until he removes the bloody weapon from her gently and throws it at a passing monster. She hisses in pain.
Jason ignores everything around him but her. He scoops her up, his shirt already dying red.
He is certain that she will die. It is only that he wants her last memory to be of a beautiful place, not a bloody, gory scene. His head is still spinning, and blood is running down one side of his face, but he does not care.
He can hear a not so distant sound of a rushing river nearby as they pass various ferns on their way, leaving the chaos behind.
Reyna's eyes are already closing, maybe forever, Jason realizes with a sense of panic, when he whispers, "Why?"
Her lips form a feeble smile as she murmurs against his shirt: "Don't you remember?". He can feel her right hand brushing against his tight; her other hand is resting against the gaping hole in her stomach.
Now Jason does. Last year, Reyna had saved his life by providing a distraction when he was fighting Krios. After everything, Jason had dared to ask why had she done such a thing.
"You are my friend, " she had said fiercely, raising her chin slightly, straightening her back ever so slightly. Then her eyes softened as she added, "I would die for you, Jason." He had believed that that could only be Roman behavior, but now a final realization was dawning on him.
"'I would die for you'," Jason quotes, feeling like if an invisible, winter-cold fist is squeezing his heart.
Reyna's eyes shine. She swallows visibly, forcefully. "And it all came true, didn't it?"
"Don't talk like that," Jason chides, although it is half-heartedly. He can already feel her body becoming lighter as Death approaches, as if her soul is being weighted down by pain and is finally letting it go, little by little. He can feel her float, and he can almost see it.
The gray stone fields give way to a grassy, rained on riverbed. Jason lays Reyna gently down on the cool earth and kisses her forehead, a thing he has never done before.
Against the pale moonlight, Jason can make out her nimble form, notice its shaking.
"Jason?" he has to strain to hear her.
"Yes?" his voice trembles.
He sees her eyes full of hope for a moment. Hope of what, he does not know. He wishes he did.
Her voice is heavy with mourning as she says her last words, the same ones she had said to him barely a year ago.
"I would die for you."
Her eyes are fixed on the night sky, looking at the constellation of the Huntress as her body goes still.
"I would die for you, too," Jason sentences softly, although it is too late.
She is already gone.
He kisses her eyelids close as he stands up slowly. He looks at the body of the girl that had once been his best friend one last time before making his way towards the battlefield. He walks straight and with his chin tilted high, like a true Roman. Like her.
Years later would Jason tell his children stories about Aunt Reyna, how she was so brave and strong until her very last breath, and Piper would smile knowingly, maybe even too knowingly as his eyes would already search for the night sky, his voice trailing off and his expression turning dreamy.
I would die for you.
And it all came true.