Note by the author:

I will be posting the REWRITTEN chapters once every two weeks. Not much has changed, but I've made some corrections, added or left out things I thought necessary.

If I stay motivated and university lets me, I will finish the story before the year is over.

No Turning Back

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

On an uneventful July afternoon, Jason and Piper were called to Chiron's office. The matter, the son of Hermes explained, was urgent and required the two heroes' immediate attention.

The son of Zeus- excuse me - Jupiter had other plans for a hot summers day, like watching the Star Wars trilogy or swimming in the lake. But no! Enjoying himself, even just for a day, was not something the dear, lovely gods wanted. Now Jason and his girlfriend were standing inside Chiron's office, where the centaur and the Oracle, a red-haired girl called Rachel, were explaining to them why they had been called.

"The thing is this -"

There has been a disturbance in the force, Jason thought and had to bite his lip to hide his grin. Damn, he loved Star Wars so much it hurt. He needed to watch it again. He wondered shortly if Piper would ever consider to -

"Jason? You okay?"

The demigod shook himself. He rubbed his neck, blushing furiously. Rachel grinned. Piper raised an eyebrow. Chiron sighed.

"We called you here, because Rachel had a dream, a vision if you want.", he said.

"So it's bad", Piper said.

Rachel nodded nonchalantly. „Yep."

"Important dreams or visions are rarely good news. We prefer being surprised by the good than by the bad things. So-". Chiron cleared his throat. "Rachel, would you mind telling them what you've told me?"

She nodded, flipping her curly hair from her face.

"Okay. In my… dream, in the beginning I was in my cave, when suddenly a voice called me to go outside."

"Whose voice?", Piper asked worriedly. Voices were never good.

She shook her head. „I don't know.", she said. "But she only said my name over and over again until I left my cave." The Oracle took a deep, shaky breath.

"I wasn't at camp Half-Blood anymore", she said. "I didn't recognize the place – it was a city. " She took a paper from her folder. She handed it over to the two demigods.

It was a beautiful, yet sad charcoal drawing of an open gate. The wide, strong doors were unhinged, someone had broken through. The opening gave a small view to what lay beyond the walls. Bodies lay scattered before and behind the gate, their faces scratched out with thick black lines.

Rachel passed them another one. "When I walked through the gate", she continued quietly. "I saw the city burning, the buildings were in ruins. There were holes in the ground from explosions…"

Jason and Piper looked at each other. Besides being absolutely beautifully drawn, the pictures showed nothing good.

Rachel had seen a city. The buildings looked like they'd been strong and beautiful, but with all the red and black and orange the Oracle had used to paint the fire and blood, all reminders of beauty were lost.

"I walked deeper into the city. I saw dead people, I couldn't see their faces, but I must've known them, because I cried in my dream. And I didn't see anything to confirm this, but I know that both sides were hit with heavy losses."

Piper gasped as she studied the third drawing.

Rachel had painted a large street. The houses were crumbling and on the sides of the pavement, bodies scattered around the ground. At the distance she'd drawn the conquering army.

"Do- did you see who these people were?", she asked.

"The conquerors?" Rachel shook her head. "But whoever they were, I wasn't happy about what they'd done."

"This means this army is going to take this city. Did the voice say anything else to you?", Jason inquired, giving the drawings back to the owner.

The Oracle shook her head again.

"No, but she didn't need to." She closed the folder tightly. "These people are in danger. If this battle has gone unnoticed by the rest of the country, it means that something powerful is hiding them. We need to find this city and warn them before the others get there first!"

Jason nodded serious.

Chiron stood up from his wheelchair. "That's why I have decided to hand this task over to you, Jason.", he said.

"Oh…. So, this is a quest?"

"No. At least, not officially." Chiron put a hand on his shoulder. "This is not a prophecy. A prophecy would make this official. Dreams, however, can be... deceptive."

"Because prophecies are always so clear", Piper muttered.

"We're talking about preventing a tragedy before it hits. Your task is to find the city and warn the people living there. Offer them our help."

"And what if they don't want our help?", Piper asked.

Chiron opened his mouth, but Rachel beat him to it.

"They will need our help eventually. If they say no, just show them my drawings. Here-"

Piper caught the folder. She hesitated. "I don't know, Rachel. After all, these are just drawings. They'll probably think we're making this up."

"Show them and they'll accept our help."

"Yeah, but what if it's a false alarm? If it was really just a dream to scare you? To lure us out from our camp to attack while we're gone?"

"Piper, if they wanted to scare me the voice would have said more. Instead, she just said my name and let me see everything." Rachel shook her head. "This is real. It is going to happen. Who knows? Maybe it's happening right now and we're just wasting our time talking!"

Chiron nodded. "That is why you have to leave today, Jason. Take whoever you want with you, but not more than two. I don't want you to call attention."

Jason nodded. „I'll take Piper.", he said without needing to think. "We'll say we're taking a week off or something."

"Yeah, but where do we start looking?" She looked at Rachel.

"I don't know for sure, but the city seemed to be very… isolated. I mean, an army conquered a city, killed hundreds of people and no one noticed! It has to be somewhere where not many people live"

"Okay", Jason said, rubbing his forehead. "Then we… we'll study the map and go to the secluded areas. Hah…What could possibly go wrong?"

"Well, there are still monsters we have to worry about."

"Thanks, Piper."

"My pleasure, Grace."

As Piper held the door open, waiting for her boyfriend, Jason turned to Rachel.

"Call us as soon as you know more, okay?"

She gave a nod. "Don't worry. I'll be sleeping a lot."