I know, I know, there are already enough Reyna/Jason angsts—actually, I was planning to make it a happy ending at first…then I figured out angst/drama fics fit best. They're like two puzzle pieces that don't quite fit, but work nevertheless…wow, I should have included that in the story, shouldn't I? It's a pretty good line.
Enough with that rambling, anyway…
So, this story is dedicated to Brittany, my friend, who was supposed to have 'String' deicated to her for her birthday…but I didn't finish string, so this is here as a poor shot at replacement. Then again, all my stories are poor shots.
Review?
She still has the red mark on her thumb, however faint, as a reminder of their mutual blood oath to keep the order of Rome in place. Even more recent is the white scratch along her forearm that she gained protecting him from Krios, a twin to the one he has on his thigh parrying a stray empousa away from her exposed neck. She can visit the five-foot stretch of stargazing bank along the Little Tiber all she wants. But the real reminder that Jason is still somewhere and she'll find him is the memories—particularly the one that played itself out half a year ago, when he sat on one side of the table and she sat on the other, talking deep into the night about the Titans, the gods, and the war, and when he finally scooted his chair around the curve in the table and put his arms around her. It was in that moment that the bleak future seemed to light itself and everything felt just right—she felt like the war could solve itself and go away, and they'd pull through together. Both of them would be okay. She knew it.
(Or at least, she thought she knew it.)
The war draws to a close, and the scars she gains add more to pride than pain. Finally, the troubles they've been facing for so long are over—she relishes that word, tasting it thoroughly before letting it free. It's over. Peace settles now. With luck, it will stay there for a while.
(She'll never learn that she can't rely on luck.)
It throws every single one of the people into some sort of chaos, but Reyna the most—so soon after the war, so soon after the turmoil (supposedly) ended, he vanishes like smoke. It's unexpected, horrifying, and, quite frankly, it makes Reyna sick. Are the Fates toying with her, or taking some sort of sadistic joy in her distress? Either way, wasn't it all supposed to be over? But this might as well be a wake-up call—it'll never be over, and Reyna finally knows it.
(When you live forever, you have forever to plot revenge.)
Just when she thinks things can't get any worse, he shows up, and everything is (once again) thrown into full-scale riot. He may have forgotten everything, he may have abandoned the other person, and alright, so Circe may have been a tad hard on him—but still, Percy Jackson is the person that shattered her peace and destroyed her home. He shouldn't be forgiven. He doesn't deserve to be forgiven. Even worse, the Lares have all pitted him as a graceus—and considering the fact that, as her sister Hylla dictated, he arrived wearing an orange shirt labeled ever-incriminating as Camp Half-Blood, Reyna has all the more reason to turn her back on him and move on without pity.
(But people change, she realizes, and she herself raises her shield after the heat of battle to honor Percy as praetor.)
She feels her excitement growing, her heart pounding, and ohmytitanswillherememberme? It's rushing around her head in circles, but Percy's bouncing on his toes like a five your old, waiting for Annabeth Chase that she's heard so much about. He loves her, it's plain to see—it's riddled in the smile he gives, euphoric and energetic. She was the only person he remembered when he came here, confused and worried, and Jason feels the same for her, so he's got to remember her, right?
The ship descends into the forum, and Terminus hops over in distress, abandoning even the Pomeranian line and giving a few stray campers the chance to sneak over and watch the skyship drop lightly onto the ground.
It hits ground with a small crash, dust clouding. The blonde from Circe's beach hops off before the gangway is even fully open and runs straight into Percy's arms. He buries his face in her hair and for that moment, it's just the two of them as stranger and friend alike smile at the couple—except for Reyna, who barely spares them a glance. The walkway drops completely, and out the door tumbles a bundle of pure caffeine-pumped energy in the form of a small Latino elf. She saves time for another look behind her and is that Hazel staring at him like that? She recognizes that look—it's the look girls gave Jason before she claimed him as his. She watches Frank's semi-murderous face and recognizes building tension when she sees it, but then footfalls echo off the wooden planks and Reyna turns around and—oh. Oh.
She sees him walk arm-in-arm with the kaleidoscope-eyed, raven-haired beauty, and her heart drops as a gasp rises in her throat.
(When Jason asks if he knows her, she doesn't answer.)
She watches him stroll around camp, reacquainting himself with the flora, fauna, and his friends. Every step of the way, the other girl (Reyna learns her name—Piper) is with him, encouraging, laughing, happy. It breaks her heart every time, and though she knows this is the spirited, unshallow daughter of Venus she never expected would exist, she can't bring herself to like her—until they're together tending to the praetor's cabin in one of the rare times Piper's not with him, and she finally breaks the silence. Piper speaks, her voice cracking, not even glancing at Reyna.
"He likes you, you know.'
"What?" Reyna throws a sharp glance at Piper—is she mocking her?
"Jason. He likes you." She swallows and turns those multicolored eyes to Reyna, and Reyna sees tears filming over, sorrow clouding them.
"No. I've seen how he acts with you, and trust me, you're his."
"Stop putting yourself down! Accept it and get him while you can, because he deserves you and it's hard enough without all the suspense—"
"Suspense? Suspense? You think your life is hard?"
"It is." Piper glares. "Harder than yours, I daresay. I was shunned by my cabin, my father ignored me, and I was arrested five times—"
"Let me get something straight. You think your life is harder than mine? My legion barely accepted me, I didn't even know my father, my mother hasn't talked to me in years, and I lived in my sister's shadow for a decade of my life! I've been blamed for every single titan attack in the past five years, I've been undermined at every turn by my own augur, and one good thing comes up, someone steals him. You have the right to feel sorry for yourself?"
"I—"
The girl's near tears, and Reyna realizes she didn't mean for it to come out so harsh, but she had to. It's her one good turn, and she's the girl that's stolen it—she's heard the stories, she's seen the signs, and she's sure Jason will never again be hers.
"Look, I'm sorry, Piper. But…can't you see how this would be hard for me?"
Piper looks up again, and Reyna realizes the steely conviction of a warrior in the very center. She's ready to fight for Jason, and fight hard.
"I've seen how hard it is, Reyna. But have you considered how hard it is for me?"
(She hasn't, as it turns out, and when she does that night, she doesn't change her mind—but her resolution wavers a little.)
Reyna doesn't know what it is, maybe Juno senses the great imbalance of memories between Jason and Percy and decides to even it out—but whatever the reason, Jason gains back his memory.
There's one small side effect no one expected.
You see, Percy's life did not drastically change anyone. Seeing as he appeared miles away from camp as opposed to among other demigods, he did not have much contact with fellow demigods until he arrived at Camp Jupiter. But Jason's mist altered him as Juno (oh-so-wisely, Reyna thinks with sarcasm) placed him right in the middle of a group of people…
Meaning that Piper and Leo's memories were rearranged as well.
Including memories of love.
It's so quick it happens overnight—one day Piper's still cooing to Jason, and the next she's laughing next to Leo. And almost all the representatives of Camp Half-Blood and Jupiter alike are there when Jason storms up, demanding to know what's happening, and Piper breaks him off with a couple of soft words cloaked in charmspeak and a chaste kiss on the cheek.
(And the people of Camp Half-Blood groan, the people of Camp Jupiter turn away from the awkward situation, and it's all Reyna can do not to smile her heart out.)
The seven leave and she's not one of them, and, contrary to popular belief, she finds it so much of a relief. The responsibility is on someone else's shoulders for once, she is not in mortal danger, and it feels so relaxing for once.
She'd be completely unburdened if Jason hadn't gone.
Even more so that Piper's with him, and she's not sure what'll happen there.
(Maybe it's those quiet murmurings that induce her to follow them.)
She watches quietly from the shadows as they brave every turn, and she herself fights monster after monster, almost all the beasts weakened by the group of seven. And, when Leo Valdez dies in the first few months, when it becomes clear that they need to replace him to bring their number back up to the magic number.
(Reyna is more than happy to oblige, and isn't too disappointed when the Chimera spots her.)
She comforts Piper, consoles Jason, and tries to take Leo's place in the group—but pretty soon, it's clear she wasn't meant to be a part of the seven. Her stubborn, impulsive nature gets them into more fights than she prevents, and her endless conflicting emotions drive her into fight after fight with group member after group member, until she's almost glad when they meet Metheria, a rare daughter of Hestia, born from a tongue of fire and given to a UN agent. With the odd ability to spread and restore peace, it's almost unspoken that Metheria is the light hearted, powerful girl the group never had. It isn't hard for Reyna to realize one of them has to leave, and it isn't hard for her to realize which one it is.
(No one says it, but Reyna knows everyone's eyeballing her—so she makes it easier on them and slips away herself.)
She waits, waits, waits—and then, suddenly, the seven return, bruised and battered but still alive. They bring news horrible beyond compare. There's only one option now, with the way things have gone—the camps need to fight, and fight to the death.
(Thousands die, but thousands don't. The seven fight their way to the center and lull Gaea back to sleep. Between Metheria and Piper, it's inevitable that her slumber resumes—and stays there for a while.)
He returns, yes—but he returns with Metheria on his arm, and it's Piper all over again in a cruel way that Reyna never imagined. They've got every right to do it, yes—but oh, how dearly she'd love to go up and claim Jason as hers, hers and hers alone, and keep him shielded from every other girl in the world for the rest of forever.
(Or she could walk away. And she does, on a cold September night when Jason finally finds the nerve to talk to her face to face.)
She trains alone. Amazonians, Huntresses, even a meager attempt at Circe's recreated island all come to her like moths to a firelight. She sends them away one by one, slowly and with composure, because she knows her heart will betray her if she joins a single one. She watches and learns, and eventually she runs into a couple of more runaway demigods. Then more. All the way until she's recreated her own little corner of Camp Jupiter, training straggling demigods who don't quite make it far enough to the Little Tiber.
As soon as they reach age twelve, she sends every one of them to the camp. She doesn't want to take leadership, and she doesn't want to be found.
(But it's such a tempting prospect, so five years later she packs up her whole camp and leaves back for home.)
She's welcomed a praetor, a hero—but the thing that seals her return once and for all is Jason, his eyes and his smile, and even more the news that Metheria's gone to Canada and won't come back. She can see happiness there, and she's staying. That's that.
(But her heart isn't into it, and for once, Reyna finds herself wondering whether trust can only go so far.)
It's him that made her stay and him that makes her leave, in the end. She loves her independence, she loves her pride, but most of all, she loves her ability to make the right choice and see loyalty over love—and that's the oath Jason's broken time and time again. She doesn't know what she feels for him anymore and she doesn't know what she'll do alone in the years to come—but she knows she's not needed and she knows that she's become a stranger to the camp, she knows she's not right here and she knows she'll never rest until she finds a place that she belongs in. A place to call home. And who knows? Maybe she'll find somebody to call it home with.
But that person isn't Jason—she finally accepts the truth of it. True love sticks until the end despite every trial, and that's not what been happening with Jason and her. She should have known back one Jason and Piper first stepped off the Argo, second of the name—but it's not too late to correct the bittersweet mistake. They've been through so much together and Reyna's heart aches when he talks to her in the few short days after she makes her decision…but it doesn't break like it used to, and even if it did, she'd learn to pick up the pieces. She tells no one of her decision, but Jason senses a shift in her mood, and on the last day, when he asks her about it, she almost thinks that she shouldn't leave because Jason's sensed her actions and isn't that what people in love do?
As Jason sleeps and she packs, she ponders the question of whether she'll return, and it crosses her mind for the first time that she won't. Yes, she's spent her childhood here, and yes, she has friends (maybe even what she considers family) here—but the memories here are too painful and she has to make sure her sane side stays. She can write—who knows? She might even Iris-Message her friends. But they've got to accept she's made her decision, and she has to accept that she's not coming back. She takes another breath, sucking in a lungful of charged ozone (Jason's ever-present trace) and sweat before striding out the door.
She wishes she could say she didn't look twice, didn't look back. In reality, she can't stop her raven-black eyes from shooting piercing, maybe even soft glances back at the home she once had.
(As she wades out of the Little Tiber and watches the Camp dissolve into atmosphere behind her, she realizes that the loneliness is her friend. And the entire world, every trial and tribulation, is her home.)