Okay, this chapter might be slightly confusing. The demigods and their flaws are transported to the actual moment that Hera decided they should see. "Past" Jason is the Jason in the memory. Jason or "regular" Jason is the Jason watching the memory.
Some of you guys' predictions about the flaws will be true in this chapter; I had fun making them fight XD
Leo
Inferiority! Schist! Cold dread settled over Leo like a dark cloud, and sweat pooled on his hairline. They're gonna find out… crap! Crap, crap, crap! Crap... he thought, except he didn't think "crap". Hopefully they'll be too interested in their own flaws to pay any attention to mine… Ha. As usual… no, stop it, Valdez. It's not their fault. I should shut my trap now… schist, this is bad. Leo clenched his jaw and forced himself to think of something else. Anything else. Okay, the other's flaws. That was a safe topic. He'd kinda figured out that Annabeth's flaw was some sort of pride— it was sort of obvious, based on how Pride had been acting. And of course Percy, the hero, had something as good as loyalty as a fatal flaw. Jason's made sense too. Fear? Pipes had fear? Guilt… from Hazel's past life? That would make sense. And Frank's… Leo felt for the big guy. His life depended on a piece of wood, for gods' sake! That was bound to make him insecure. Even if Leo had (very awesomely) given him the fireproof cloth bag Calypso had made, his life was still dependent on that puny little stick. Leo was really glad he wasn't Frank.
"Wait, time out," Piper spoke up. Her tone was light and calm, but Leo knew her well enough to tell that she was probably (internally) freaking out. "What was that?"
Surprisingly, it was Hazel's flaw, Guilt, who answered. "Hera gave us all your memories, so that we could figure out what flaw we are."
"All our memories?" Percy asked, cringing. Be glad you're not me, Leo smiled wryly before plastering on a mask of cheerfulness again. Guilt nodded with Percy.
"You're… uh… Insecurity, right?" Jason guessed, pinching the bridge of his nose absentmindedly.
Guilt shook her head, her curls bouncing in front of her face. "No, I'm Guilt. Frank's flaw is Insecurity."
"And there's Fear, Piper's flaw," added the babyish-looking Insecurity. "That's Pride—she's annoying—there's Loyalty, and he's Duty," he pointed respectively at Piper's, Annabeth's, Percy's, and Jason's flaws. Pride glared at Insecurity, who visibly swallowed nervously. Please don't introduce mine…
"So, Hazel's flaw is Guilt, Frank's is Insecurity, Annabeth's is Pride, Percy's got Loyalty, and Jason has Duty. Oh yeah—mine is Fear," Piper started, seeming very (misleadingly) collected about the whole thing. "What's Leo's?" Dammit! Her charmspeak washed over Leo, and he wasn't strong enough to resist it. But he managed to muffle his response so that it sounded something like Flapagaffity. Piper narrowed her eyes at him.
Hazel's eyes suddenly widened in something like… understanding. Oh, schist! She was with me… when Nemesis… Leo banished the thought from his mind, but it kept returning, haunting him. Annabeth glanced at Hazel, and secret girl communication seemed to take place. Frank and Percy were starting to notice as well. Infer—Leo's flaw met Leo's eyes. As weird as it felt to be staring at himself, they came to a silent agreement: Nobody could know Leo's flaw.
Leo smiled sheepishly, trying to draw everyone's attention back to himself. "You'll find out later anyway, Beauty Queen," he explained. "Let's get on with this thing! Invading people's privacy? Doesn't that sound like fun? Who wants to go first?!" Leo exclaimed, flinging his arms out wide and narrowly avoiding hitting Frank. Jason regarded Leo skeptically. Annabeth and Hazel were still talking silently. Percy and Frank watched their respective girlfriends in bemusement. And Piper was still glaring at Leo, who didn't meet her eyes. The flaws all did their own thing, except Duty, who considered Leo pityingly. Leo glared at him.
"I will," Duty stepped up, his blue eyes perfectly matching the shade of the sky. He had a muscular physique, and cut an impressive figure. So Leo let out a low wolf whistle. Duty simply ignored him; Jason's face turned bright red. Leo snickered and grinned.
"So, uh, how's this gonna work, exactly?" Frank asked, scratching his head.
"My blackouts," Guilt and Hazel said simultaneously; Hazel continued. "Before the quest to Alaska, I had blackouts, where I relieved my memories. Frank and Leo went with me once or twice, I think. And Percy, you know what I'm talking about." Percy nodded. "I think us watching the memories will be like that—we get transported to the moment itself, though nobody in the memory can see or hear us."
Insecurity instantly glared at Leo. This isn't good. "And you held hands!" he spat, advancing upon Leo with his fists clenched. Leo backed away, resisting the urge to punch him in the face. Calm down, it's not Frank! Well, he is part of Frank, but… Insecurity's dark eyes blazed and he looked utterly terrifying, despite his babyish face. Can he shape-shift? Leo got his answer when a fully-grown male silverback gorilla leaped on top of Leo, who squirmed and wiggled his way out. The real Frank tried to drag Insecurity away, but Insecurity shook off his counterpart, and attacked Leo again. Piper tried to use her charmspeak, but her voice shook. The others—well, they were no match for an 800-pound gorilla. Leo had no choice but to shoot fire from his fingertips, singing Insecurity's fur. Leo nimbly jumped forward and hooked his foot around his opponent's knees while he was distracted, bringing him down.
Suddenly, a booming voice echoed from the heavens. "Stop that!" Instantly, all the demigods' heads snapped upwards. Leo stepped away from Insecurity. "Hazel is correct. You will undertake a journey through memories relevant to each of your fatal flaws. Duty! Begin," Just as abruptly as Hera started speaking, she stopped equally abruptly. Insecurity changed back, still glaring at Leo.
Duty cleared his throat, and everyone glanced over to him. "Take my arm, everyone," he directed. Apprehensively, Leo touched Duty's forearm. The others dubiously grabbed on to Duty as well, until Jason was the only one left who wasn't crowded around Duty.
"I… I don't think I can do this…" he face suddenly turned a sickly shade of green. Leo felt for him— Hera was seriously invading their privacy. I definitely don't want them to watch my memories… But at the same time, Leo was curious about Jason's past. He didn't know the guy before the Wilderness School, and even that was mostly fake, Mist-induced memories.
Duty snapped. He had already been eyeing Jason—and all the Greek demigods (Even Piper; wait, no. Especially Piper.)—with disgust and mistrust, but apparently, Jason not wanting to do as a goddess said was the last straw for Duty. "Traitor to Rome! You're just wimpy Greek scum now! Grab on, now!" He shot out a hand and yanked Jason towards him roughly. Leo felt his hair sparking. Quickly, he patted out the fire with one hand before scowling at Duty. What was his problem? Leo hated guys like him—they were no better than common bullies, and Leo had had more than his fair share of those. He considered withdrawing his hand, but a golden flash erupted around them, and suddenly Leo was back at the Wolf House. But this time, there was no evil snow goddess or trapped Hera.
There was a little toddler waddling around curiously, and an intelligent-looking wolf—Lupa. This must be right after Hera took Jason away from Thalia… gods, he's so young.
"They can't see us," Duty explained in a hushed tone. "We'll just watch." Leo glared at him and yanked his hand away from Duty, making a big show out of wiping his hands. Jason laughed softly.
Lupa started speaking in a rasping voice—something Leo couldn't understand a word of, so it must've been Latin. She gestured at a fallen tree branch lying on the ground. Jason—the little one—moved to pick it up, but Lupa shook her head in warning and said something else. The Romans listened intently. Whatever she said, little Jason nodded, took a few steps towards the branch, then promptly face-planted onto the ground.
Piper squealed. "You were so cute, Jason!" Jason blushed, while Duty rolled his eyes and sighed. Fear just smiled… wistfully, it seemed to Leo.
"Pipes, your Aphrodite is show—" Leo stopped and gaped, open-mouthed, as little Jason quickly picked himself back up and examined himself for injuries detachedly with no sign of complaint or tears. Lupa nodded in what seemed like approval. Despite the dirt on his face, little Jason smiled in delight, showing off a gap-toothed smile that made the girls and their flaws—six in total—aw in unison. Leo nearly did so with them, but stopped himself just in time. It might've been slightly embarrassing if he did aw…
Then, Leo's stomach suddenly lurched like when he was carsick, and he was turned inside-out (or so it felt like). He closed his eyes and tightened his jaw. When he opened his eyes again, the fourteen demigods/flaws were somewhere else. Leo recognized it as the center of New Rome—actually, the very place where Leo had fired the ballista at. His stomach twanged again, but this time it had nothing to do with the nauseating transition between memories.
On a podium stood a thin blond scarecrow, with a few slashed teddy bears sitting in a pile at his feet. Leo sucked in a breath of intense dislike. Duty hissed, and Leo thought he heard him mutter disloyal to Rome under his breath. Only Octavian would stand in front of several hundred armed soldiers with gutted stuffed animals sitting at his feet. He didn't even seem the slightest bit self-conscious about the pile of white stuffing scattered around him like bird droppings.
"He killed my panda pillow pet," Percy grumbled to himself. Leo tapped his ear to make sure he'd heard correctly. Then, he (unsuccessfully) stifled a snort.
Next to Octavian stood a tall boy, maybe eight. Nine? Ten? Leo couldn't tell, even though he was standing pretty much right in front of the two. Either way, he was tan, moved lithely, and had the calm air of a leader, though he seemed very unsure of himself at the same time. He had a thin white scar on his upper lip—hey, that's Jason!
Jason shifted uncomfortably as he watched his past self. Leo wasn't proud of it, but just then, he felt a stab of jealousy. Jason was insanely good-looking, even at such a young age. And from the massive crowd gathered below the podium, he was obviously well-known and respected. That was a lot more than could be said about Leo at that age. When he was eight… right. Aunt Rosa called me a diablo and sent me off.
"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter—first year of service!" Octavian announced, not sounding too happy. The assembled legionnaires cheered loudly. Past Jason clenched his jaw, threw his shoulders back, and without further ado, Octavian brought a hot iron to Jason's arm. Past Jason sucked in a shaky breath as the iron touched his skin. The Romans and Percy absentmindedly touched their own tattoos. Octavian took away the iron. "All hail Jason Grace, the son of Jupiter!"
The scene changed yet again. They were still in New Rome, and Jason was still on the podium, but now he looked around fifteen, and he wore a purple cloak. He was the praetor, standing proudly alongside Reyna. Past Jason didn't appear to notice the furtive glances past Reyna shot at him, and neither did normal Jason. Duty, however, did.
"You idiot!" he growled.
"What?!" Jason snapped back.
"You should have accepted Reyna! The two praetors together—perfect! A former praetor and that useless Greek Venus spawn? Bah!" Duty spat, glaring at Piper, who looked furious at both Duty and Jason.
"Is that really how you thought of me?!" she yelled. Leo moved closer to her and glared at Duty. But before anyone could say anything else, the memory changed.
The scenes changed rapidly now. Jason leading the Fifth Cohort against the First in a war game. Jason discussing something serious with Reyna in a Senate meeting (Piper glared at Duty; Fear looked devastated). Jason buying a—a brownie at a store in New Rome? Jason being heroic. Jason being powerful. Jason doing his duty.
Then, the memory scene shifted for one last time, and now the group stood in the entryway of a gigantic palace of truly massive proportions. Leo could sense all of the millions of tons of stone used to build the fantastical structure. Annabeth and Pride both gasped at the architecture (or something like that). Hazel's eyes were wide, and Percy was practically drooling over the vast array of deadly weaponry lined up against the walls. But Jason was tense, his posture rigid—Duty was the same.
Suddenly, a troupe of armor-clad demigods marching in a tight battle formation burst in from the side, with a familiar blond head leading the way, though he wasn't a praetor yet. Jason and the Legion. Past Jason held his head high as he scanned the room alertly, his sword held at the ready. The legionnaires scattered at a sharp command from Reyna, and suddenly, a horde of bloodthirsty monsters came out of nowhere and engaged them in battle immediately.
"Toppling the black throne of Krios," Jason muttered softly. Percy made a whimpering noise. Leo inhaled sharply. This was the Romans' Titan War. He tore his gaze away from the building and to the battle. As he watched, Jason ran (and flew) all over the place, helping out his fellow soldiers as needed. Until a giant Titan loomed in front of him, hissing nasty insults. And what did Jason do? Of course, he hovered up into the air and started blasting bolts of supercharged lightning at the Titan.
"Even Percy wasn't that reckless," Annabeth commented. Loyalty huffed, apparently not understanding that "reckless" wasn't something good.
"Excuse me?! I was way more heroic than Duty! I fought Kronos! Duty only fought whatever-this-dude's-name-is!" Leo rolled his eyes as Duty muttered something about ignorant Greeks. Pride glared at Duty, affronted.
Then, everything happened at once. Duty, Loyalty, and Pride started a three-way catfight, with Duty and Loyalty arguing over who was more heroic, Pride and Duty yelling about whether Romans or Greeks were better, and Loyalty and Pride fighting about… nothing in particular, actually. Their counterparts tried to stop the fight, which led to Fear yelling insults at Duty and Guilt joining in to support her, which led to Piper and Hazel trying to stop their flaws, which led to Insecurity tripping over Hazel, which caused Infer—Leo's flaw to fall down as well. Frank scrambled to help the flaws up, and so Leo was left watching the battle, which had taken a turn for the worse.
Unblinkingly, the Titan batted Jason to the ground, then ripped the future praetor's sword out of his hands. Leo held his breath as Jason lay unmoving. Then—past Jason got up, and did something weird. He rolled to the side and grabbed a discarded dagger. Then, with a high spinning kick, he dispatched at least three monsters into Tartarus with hardly a second glance at them. With Apollo/Artemis-worthy aim, past Jason threw the dagger at Krios' hand, who dropped Jason's sword. Immediately, Jason leaped up and stabbed the Titan straight in the heart.
Damn...
Next chapter will be updated sometime Wednesday-Friday. I will finish up Jason's memories, and do Annabeth's.
I think I'll add Nico's fatal flaw in Chapter 6. Do you think I got Jason's flaw accurately?