Tempting the Fates

Chapter Twenty

The Face of Love Pt 2

Jason

The children of the gods fell to their knees when their bodies reformed, set down in an abandoned and partially excavated Roman town in Dalmatia. Zephyros chortled before them watching as they struggled to their feet.

He warned them, eyes zero'ing in on Annabeth, not to be so naive in their envisioning of cupid. Everyone had the wrong idea, he said, and it was never so simple. Love was never so simple; he locked onto Jason as the word's slipped past his lips.

Then he told them a story of Hyacinthus, his beloved, and the trespassing of Apollo. It only took a few moments to realise the story was not, in fact, about a woman. His eyes stayed particularly focused on Hazel which was particularly confusing to Jason but maybe it was because she came from another era and the story was more likely to shock her.

He left them just as quickly as he came in a gust of wind and a ruffle of feathers.

That's when the wind started, a whirlwind around then tugging at their hair and clawing at their eyes. Jason could feel the movement just as he could see it, but it was fast and only caught it out of the corner of his eye. Lifting his gladius, he held it though he didn't feel as though he'd swing it.

"Where are you?"

Where you least expect me.

Annabeth shouted as a strand of her hair was ripped to the side. Growling, she lunged toward the spot but whatever had been there a moment prior vacated immediately. She met nothing but space and nearly pitched forward.

As I always am, he continued but the voice echoing in his head bubbled with laughter. The tacky Valentine's day image of a chubby cherub in diapers with hearts for eyes was immediately wiped from his mind.

"Come here, you coward!"

Oh, Jason Grace, you know better. After all, you've found true love. Or do you doubt yourself?

"Of course he doesn't," Hazel shouted, lifting a hand to protect her eyes from the dust and the particles whipping around before them.

Jason fell at that moment, a collision of some unseen force with his stomach knocked all the air from his lungs. He landed on one knee, and held his stomach for a few long seconds as he struggled to fill his lungs. Spots danced at the corners of his vision and Annabeth rushed forward, crouching at his side.

"Are you alright?" She murmured but the words were blown away just as swiftly by the bluster.

"That's not fair!" Hazel shouted holding her sword up higher but without an enemy to fight against it was futile.

You expect me to be fair!? Love is never fair! He boomed, the internal volume increasing the pressure in Jason's cranium and he was definitely on his way to migraine town on top of struggling to get his breath.

"If you have something to say… it might be worth saying," she whispered as she hoisted him up by his elbow, helping the son of Jupiter to find his footing once more.

This time, he senses were on high alert when he felt the air disturbed next to him. An arrow was flying straight toward Annabeth's chest but he intercepted it, and it tore into his flesh piercing his heart. For a moment he stood there gasping, clutched at the shaft protruding from his chest; his heart sped up pumping faster and faster in his chest but blood didn't spill forward.

Hazel rushed to his side as well, trying to find where the damage was but finding none.

Annabeth, eyes hardened, stood tall with her dagger in hand. "We just want the sceptre! Give it to us. We've done you no hard. You know why we need it— she said that you did!"

Ah, Styx. Yes, I know why you need it better than you. And would you still want it, child of Wisdom, if you knew which hero would make it back? And which wouldn't?

The words froze the air around them. It was the first time that a god had actually implied that one of the two boys wouldn't be coming back. The finality in his voice shook the ground on which she stood. Annabeth clutched her own heart, though no arrow pierced the skin. Her eyes dissolved, brimming with tears.

"No," she choked. "No no no, you can't… you can't say that."

Love is nothing without sacrifices and who do you think would sacrifice themselves to save the other? To ensure that one returned home?

"Shut up!" Annabeth was on her knees, head clutched in her hands. The blonde strands of her hair were like a lightning storm striking around her in the windstorm. She hunched over, rocking on her knees trying to arrest his words from penetrating.

Jason was on high alert, every part of his body quivering with anticipation. Cupid's words stung and though an arrow pierced his chest, he stood. It was awkward holding his gladius but he did broke off the overhang leaving the flint within his body but better range of motion for his sword arm. It hurt like a son of a bitch but Jason managed a growl rather than a girlier pitch. The next time the invisible god bolted past him, he was ready. Jason caught a glancing blow to some part of his body and from the tension, he sensed the god stumbled.

Very good, Jason grace. You have had a glimpse at love. More than most, consider yourself lucky.

"I want the sceptre! We're going to stop Gaea and we need it. Styx said it would get our friends back to us and we need them to defeat her. Aren't you on our side? Don't you want to stop her before she destroys everything? You won't have people to go around shooting with your arrows if she destroys us all."

His heart was jackhammering in his chest as he swung his gladius hoping for a second blow but he sliced air and air alone. Hazel watched him worriedly. "Don't overdo it. It could bleed," but he dismissed her. Cupid hadn't shot him so he would bleed out. There was some point he was trying to make.

You couldn't wield the sceptre even if you wanted to. Only a child of the Underworld can call upon the dead, and a Roman leader command them.

"Nico or I could do it! We could rise them! And Jason could lead them…"

But could he lead them? Could he really? Because as much as he had been praetor that had been before… before Camp Half Blood. Before Piper. Before his memory was gone and he was implanted with a bunch of fake ones and danced around like a puppet on strings. Before he'd conceded to Percy and given up his position to the son of Poseidon. And hadn't he been going back and forth about where he belonged truly? Roman or Greek— why did he even have to choose?

You can't even look unto the face of love, Jason. How can you be so quick to volunteer? Could you lead them? Or would another be better fit…

The arrow dissolved then into air and the pummelling in his chest picked up, his heart a sledgehammer and his ribcage was glass. Any second he would crash his way through. Clutching at his chest, there was no wound, and yet he could feel pain surging through his body with each pump of his heart pushing blood and poison to the rest of him.

Love is no game, children. It is fierce and strong and passionate. It is a journey that never ends and it requires everything of you, especially truth. If you cannot face yourself, how can you face love?

The room fluxed around him and Jason was everywhere and no where all at once. Just like when the west wind had taken him, he had no tangible body tying him to the ground but he wasn't a spirit either. Everything shifted around him, shadows and light, until it formed pictures. From somewhere far away, he was still aware of Annabeth and Hazel. They were on this journey with him though he wasn't sure how or to what extent— maybe just spectators.

Piper stood before him in the Argo II, hands clasping and unclasping at her sides. Her hair was tied into braids at either side of her head and while normally this made her appear young the fire in her eyes was hot and unforgiving.

"What do you mean I can't go? This is my mission. You can't just decide that I'm no…"

"You're out of control, Piper. You said yourself you're not sure what happened but I think something is happening with your powers getting close to the homeland. They're not… you can't balance yourself out. Something might go wrong."

"This is about her, isn't it?"

"It's about everyone and their safety, Pipes! This can't go wrong or we're going to lose both of them. You know it's true… and we can't afford to lose either of them."

She'd stood before him brown eyes broken, his blue ones had been apologies, but hers had been closing doors.

Everything faded black and he had the sensation of twisting, falling, turning, but when it stopped he didn't exactly feel like he'd landed or arrived anywhere in particular. But thing shifted and moved once more.

He and Piper were standing inside New Rome on a rescue mission for Percy Jackson. Things hadn't yet gone south but her eyes were chary as a cat waiting for a mouse. She was looking for clues, that moment when he remembered things and then she'd pounce. So he hadn't said anything though feelings came rushing back and it was overwhelming and confusing but he'd met it steady and with a stony face.

"Anything?" She asked.

"Vaguely. It's all a bit hazy."

Tell them about your feelings. Your true feelings, Jason. Tell them how you really feel, or will you hide as you keep doing? Hide among your friends without ever really committing yourself. It's what you always do, isn't it? Cupid mocked.

But the sights and the sounds and the smells and the taste were all encompassing and his knees had been weak with the weight of his lie and his heart had been heavy with the adiposity of her expectations. She didn't want him to remember and so he smiled all blonde hair and blue eyes and she had relaxed. When he turned away, he closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of home pushing away a yearning.

The light deviated once more and the images came slower and faster all at once. His heart was the cadence, hammering away in time as they sped up. When he'd seen Reyna again and the way it'd taken away his breath. Before he'd disappeared they'd been together, just the once. Jason had eluded the full compass of the truth for the sake of sparing feelings; the daughter of Aphrodite was so completely different from the silent strength, cool calm and certainty with which she moved, fully conscious of each muscle and how to hold herself.

Finally he saw the note, just recently tucked behind the bust of Diocletian and Annabeth— so alike Reyna in her own self assurance and awareness— that she had closed his fingers around the note and pushed it back just a little bit further to keep Hazel from seeing. Because it was important that she not see or she would tell Piper and Piper, knowing it was for Reyna, would not understand in the way that Annabeth (or even Reyna herself) would… or could.

You do not have the strength, Jason, to face who you are or how you feel.

"Jason… what's this?" Hazel's voice was shrill, holding her head against the onslaught that was still happening around them; he was both blind and numb to do. "What is he talking about? What… what were you doing…"

And finally the last one. The last night in New Rome, before he'd disappeared. Reyna and her black hair swirling around her, dark eyes following the movement of his hands up and down her caramel skin. There had been sparks between them, quite literally, blue flashes crackling against her skin where he traced it with his fingers. Their lips had touched and their feet had quite literally come off the ground causing her to hold just a little tighter (not in a desperate way, she was too confident they would not fall, and too sure that she would be unharmed), laughing all the while.

He had told her nothing happened. He didn't remember much of it. He remembered everything and he might have told her— tried to tell her— but Piper's eyes were not forgiving. They did not want to know anything but the truth she was willing to tell herself and with a heavy heart he had fulfilled exactly what she wanted.

"I loved her!" He finally shouted, clutching at his chest. There was no wound and yet his heart steadied just a little. Lightning filled the room, lighting everything above them. It crackled, charging the air, before the bolts rained down. They missed Hazel and Annabeth though both demigods ducked and shouted, their hair soon standing on end like cartoon characters.

"I loved her and I did… everything I could but… I can't be in love with someone who doesn't want me as I am. As I was. I can't be what everyone wants me to be, only what I can be…I loved her but I'm not… I can't be in love with someone… and she's only in love with who she thinks I am. I'm not that person. I can't be any more."

His vision cleared and the cyclone around them dyed down. The first thing he saw was Hazel's tear stained cheeks, eyes boring through him like daggers. No sincere or silent apology would win her forgiveness, just like it would not for the daughter of Aphrodite; he felt both bigger and smaller at the same time. Annabeth crouched unmoving, unblinking, unjudging.

"She'll understand. I spent a lot of time loving who I wanted Percy to be… the boy from the prophecy, from my hopes… she'll understand. The weight is too much for anyone."

Jason's gladius dropped to the floor teetering back and forth, clattering, until finally it lay silent. The son of the sky hung his head, the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. And yet… he felt lighter. Untethered. Free to think and make the choice he'd as of yet not contemplated, too afraid of the road it might request of him and the ways that might effect Piper.

Cupid appeared before them, eyes ablaze, handsome but fierce. "Love may not always make us happy, but once you have faced it, you can begin to do something about it. You can live with it." He rested his hand on Hazel's shoulder and smiled down at her. "Do not be so judgemental, daughter of Pluto, for you are one to hold grudges. But the only way to conquer love is to face it, even if it possesses a different face than the one you expected."

Dark eyes glanced up at him, Hazel looked upon the face of love unblinking. He sighed and shook his head, curls falling in his eyes though not quite as tightly wound as her own. "Open your heart, demigod. There are those around you whom you think you know but are even more of a stranger to you thank this hero. We must all face love in our own time. He has done his part. Now you must do yours."

The god disappeared and in his place rested the sceptre just inches from her fingertips.

Jason's eyes were blurred with unshed tears, teeth worrying his bottom lip.

When he looked up Hazel was still crouched on the floor, unmoving, but her eyes were locked on him. Her fingers slid across the ground and grasped the sceptre like a lifeline, fingers running across the gems encrusted in it.

Annabeth's hands soon wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug.

"You have to tell her."

"I know."

"As soon as we get back."

"I know and I will… I just… it didn't seem like the right time. Now, before the war and…"

"It never would have seemed like a good time. It never will. But you have to be honest with her. We don't know what could happen but you owe her that much. Promise?"

"I promise."

"Okay, come on."

She took his hand in her own and pulled him up until he was standing.

Jason really wasn't looking forward on heading back to the ship.