This is the side-story I promised yesterday to Andrea Jackson and the Major. This is Jasper's meeting with Ares to sort of explain his hatred for the god. I hope you all like it. This also has a bit of why Jasper and his mother, Athena, don't get along and mentions of the torture Jasper received from the Romans.

Has been updated. Only changed the name of Jasper's torturer to keep it canon with the main story.

Jasper ran a tanned hand through his blond hair as he threw the letter into the fire. He ignored the looks from soldiers around the camp as he made his way back to his tent. Why couldn't Chiron just leave him the Hades alone? Didn't the damn centaur understand he needed this. He needed to get away, to fight. He couldn't look around camp anymore without seeing blood and the corpses of his family. He could still hear his little sisters' screams as they had been gutted by Romans. Jackie and Kathy had only been six when a couple of Romans had snuck into the camp and murdered them. Jasper felt a tear run from his eye as he entered his tent.

His scars still throbbed, the ghosts of torture. He could still very clearly feel the pain of the knives sliding across his skin, the fire burning away his flesh. Jasper had begged the gods to let him forget, but they wouldn't allow it. They took everyone's memories but his own. A memorial of his service, they told him. He was sure his mother just wanted to see him suffer for letting the Roman's nearly beat them. Athena's words to him when he had been rescued from the Roman camp were seared permanently into his mind.

Athena sneered down at her son as he lay half-conscious in his bed. Jasper stared up at her, gray eyes meeting identical ones.

"You've failed me, boy," Athena said coldly, looking down her nose at Jasper. "They almost won because of you. You nearly gave up our secrets."

"I'm sorry, Mother," Jasper said hoarsely. It hurt to speak after staying silent for so long. "I was in pain. I just wanted it to end. They swore it would stop."

"They are liers, Jasper," Athena interrupted. Her glare had hardened even more. "They would not have stopped torturing you!"

"I know that!" Jasper said, nearly shouting at his mother. "I was in so much pain, though. I couldn't think straight!"

If Jasper expected pity from his mother, he didn't get any. Athena continued to glare in silence at her son for a long moment. Jasper could feel his stomach churning at the look.

"You are no son of mine."

Jasper just managed to close his eyes in time to block out the blinding light of Athena exposing her true form as she disappeared. He didn't open his eyes until he heard the door that led outside creak open.

"Jasper?" Thomas asked as he stepped inside. The son of Apollo looked around nervously as if he expected the irate goddess to jump out from somewhere. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Jasper grunted. He started to turn on his side, but froze at the immense pain coming from his side. "Just let me sleep."

It had been a little over two years now since Jasper had last spoken to his mother. Thirteen months since the war against the Romans ended. Jasper had stayed at camp a full two months, long enough for all his wounds to completely heal, before leaving. He couldn't bare to stay where he had seen so much of his family die any longer. He had gone back to Texas and joined the Confederate Army. He couldn't explain it, but he had a need to keep fighting. He needed to get all his anger out somehow, and this was the best way he could think of. And if he found a few Roman demigods wandering the Texas countryside every now and then, well, all the better for Jasper.

"Major Whitlock," a voice called from outside the entrance to Jasper's tent. Jasper sighed. Was there no hope for any peace?

"What is it, Captain?" he replied, moving to shove aside the tent flap. Captain Brantley Edwin Hollis stood outside the tent, feet shifting nervously.

"There's someone here to see you, Major, sir," Hollis said. "He won't tell anyone his name and says he'll only speak to you.

Jasper frowned at that. It couldn't be Chiron, could it? No, Chiron would have mentioned coming to visit in his letter. And it wasn't his mother, Hollis had said it was a he. One of his brothers? Maybe.

"Tell him I'll meet with him in my tent," Jasper said, turning back into his tent. "Thank you, Captain."

"Of course," Captain Hollis replied quickly. Jasper couldn't help but smile to himself as the kid ran off. He couldn't be any older than sixteen, but somehow he had weaseled his way into the army. Jasper wouldn't call him out, he had only just turned eighteen himself.

The man who entered the tent wasn't who Jasper expected at all. He was big; taller and more muscled than Jasper himself. Filthy jeans covered the man's thick legs, and a chocolate work shirt covered the man's upper body, his muscles straining the cotton fabric. It wasn't until Jasper looked into the man's flaming eyes that he recognized him.

"Lord Ares," Jasper said with a slight bow.

"Major Jasper Whitlock," Ares replied with a wicked grin. His smirk alone was enough to make the scar on Jasper's side throb. "Been a long time since you've had contact with any of us."

"Been busy," Jasper replied through gritted teeth. He wanted to rub the pain in his side away, but he refused to show weakness in front of this god. Ares, or Mars, really, had sided with the Romans. "What did you need?"

"Just coming to see how you were doing?" Ares responded. He walked around Jasper to the table where Jasper had battle plans laid out. "These your plans?"

"Maybe," Jasper replied. He was quick to pick them up and stuff them in his trunk. "Why are you really here?"

"A favor," Ares replied. "For you. You see, I got this little problem. You won't live to see the end of this war, Whitlock."

Jasper couldn't stop the scowl that fell across his face. "That was kind of the point, my lord." Nor could he help the mocking tone his voice adopted for the moniker.

"You ain't gonna be happy with the way your life turns out, boy," Ares sneered. "I could help you, if you want?"

"Are you Apollo now?" Jasper asked, fighting back an eye roll. "What's in it for you, anyway? Gods don't do anything that doesn't have gain for them."

"Maybe I want to be nice," Ares said condescendingly. "You could accept my help."

"No offense, my lord," Jasper said, "but the whole point of joining the army was to die. I don't want to stop it."

"You're going to regret those words," Ares warned. "If you really want to die I could run you through right now. Or maybe you want be to give you back to Jakub."

Jasper felt his entire body stiffen. Jakub. Even the name brought bile up to his throat and made his whole body ache. The wicked smile on the blond's face as he ripped apart Jasper's flesh was a constant in the Greek's nightmares. The feel of burning pokers and rusted blades digging into soft flesh was a feeling Jasper didn't think he'd ever forget. And then there was the way Jakub had dug a knife covered in pit scorpion venom into his side and twisted. He hadn't let Jasper die, though. Oh no. Jakub had healed him of all his wounds at the end of each day, sometimes giving him a couple days to recover, before starting all over again.

"You should leave," Jasper said as calmly as he could. He turned to Ares. "Now."

"I thought you wanted to die," Ares taunted, taking a step closer.

"I said leave!" Jasper said again, his voice rising, nearly a yell. His body was shaking; from rage or fear, he wasn't sure. All he really knew was how much he wanted Ares gone.

Ares' hand clamped around Jasper's jaw as he smirked at the demigod. "You shouldn't order a god around boy."

Jasper didn't say a word. He was frozen in place. He wasn't sure if it was his fear or Ares who made it so.

"Major?" Captain Hollis called from outside the tent. "Are you alright?"

And didn't that sound exactly like what Thomas had said. The similarity was uncanny. When the tent flap moved aside, Jasper half-expected to see his old friend. Ares quickly let go of Jasper before Thomas could see anything.

"Major Whitlock?" Hollis repeated. He was staring wide-eyed at Jasper and Ares. "Is everything okay?"

"Fine, Captain," Jasper replied. He glared heavily at Ares. "Come in, will you? I have some things to go over with you, and my guest was just leaving." Jasper raised an eyebrow at Ares, daring the god to contradict him.

"Of course," Ares said snidely, stepping around Jasper and Captain Hollis to leave the tent.

"Who was that man?" Hollis asked after a few minutes of silence. "I heard you telling him to leave, not that I was eavesdropping, sir, and I got worried for you."

Jasper smiled at the boy's manner. Exactly like Thomas. "No one important, Brantley," he said, using the boy's first name. "Just a relative I don't entirely get along with. I actually did want to go over some things with you about our supplies, though."

The pain was overwhelming. Jasper just wanted it to end. He begged and pleaded. He promised to share any information they needed. It was awful. No one seemed to be anywhere near him. At least, Jasper assumed no one was close by. He couldn't hear, see, feel, or smell anything. As the burning went on, Jasper wondered if he should have taken Ares up on his offer of instant death all those months ago.

The pain was stopping now. A blessed mercy. Jasper blinked open his eyes. Standing in front of him was the woman from before. She was short with black hair and bright red eyes. In her arms, an elderly man struggled to break free.

Jasper could feel the burn in his throat, the only place where pain remained. He was so thirsty. Jasper lunged forwards and sunk his teeth into the man's neck, ignoring the screaming, ignoring the blood that was getting all over his front. Jasper sucked the man dry. When there was no blood left, Jasper brought his black eyes up to the woman's red ones.

"Hello, Major," the woman smirked.