Jason fends off the girl from the Third Cohort with his lance. She takes a dive at him with her sword. He sidesteps, knowing that she's leaning most of her weight on her weapon. He can tell by the way her feet are positioned. Her own momentum causes her to fall. Jason hears footsteps behind him just as the girl trips. He whirls around. His lance connects with the person's helmet, which leaves a dent. The boy holds up his shield and sword in defense, then falls to his butt.

A stinging feeling explodes across his left arm. Jason turns swiftly on his heel. The girl who had tripped smiles triumphantly. Jason looks down and sees a deep cut on his upper arm. He scowls and drives the unpointed part of his lance into the girl's chest, effectively knocking the wind out of her.

He turns back around to the guy, who's still probably dazed from that blow to the head. The boy stands back up. Jason kicks him in the shin and runs towards the fortress, which is guarded by the Second and Fourth Cohorts.

Bombs explode around him, being catapulted from the ballista atop the tower. Hannibal the Elephant roars, taking a spear out of a kid's hands, who complains and yells curses at the gigantic beast. The sound of clanging metal fills his ears. Smoke makes it hard to see, and Jason has a hard time breathing. He tries to clear the smoky air with the wind that follows his commands while he speed walks through the field. When he is able to see again, he continues running.

Suddenly, he trips over a spear. How heroic of him. A dark haired girl stands over him and lifts the long pointed weapon. Jason wills the air currents to clear more of the smoke. It's Reyna. He holds up his own spear to defend himself. Their lances clash. Jason sends jolts of electricity through the spear, and Reyna grits her teeth in pain. Her black hair stands up a little. But, like the warrior she is, she doesn't give in.

The electric jolts hadn't worked as Jason had hoped. He'll be overpowered. She has the upper hand, and will knock him out cold in a matter of seconds. Unless... Jason focuses on the wind and commands them to whirl around both of them. A miniature tornado begins to form.

He wills it to whirl around Reyna, who is then lifted a few feet off the ground and gasps in surprise.

"Jason! Jason! Stop! Jason!"

He stands proudly, and readjusts his grip on his lance, which has grown slick with sweat. He wills the tornado to spin faster and the air to carry her higher.

Reyna screams curses down at him. Jason runs the other way, towards the tower. He holds the tornado as long as he can, but then releases the winds and can sense them slowing to a stop behind him. His feet pound against the ground about as fast as he can hear his heart pounding in his chest. He leaps over fallen debris like a deer, careful not to trip over any more weapons.

Jason has no idea how Reyna gets to him so fast, but she must have catapulted herself with her spear. Or maybe it was just pure rage that fueled her, because before he knows it, he's face planted into the dirt with Reyna's arms wrapped around him. His nose stings and his neck aches. His mouth feels gritty with pieces of sand and rocks.

Reyna had tackled him to the ground. Her knees dig into his back. He groans in pain. When Jason breathes in through his nose he tastes the blood that drips into his mouth. He spits out blood and saliva covered pieces of sand. That's it. I've had enough of this. Jason thinks angrily.

He twists around so he's lying on his side and grabs her arm. He feels the electricity pulsing through his veins, each shock like miniature heartbeats as he burns her wrist. She cries out in pain, punching him in the cheek. She leans back on the ground and cradles her forearm in her hand.

Jason sees tears in her eyes, and he feels a horrible ache of guilt over hurting his friend. She did sort of deserve it, though. He gets up and holds his hand out to her.

"Look Rey, I'm sorry-"

Her eyes change for a split second. They flicker. The rings around both her irises and her pupil turn red. Then, just as quick, turn back to her normal dark color.

She says the next sentence slowly, and each word causes fear to ripple through him,"I'm going to count to three, and then I'm gonna-"

Jason doesn't wait for her to finish. He shoots off from the ground and up high into the air. He wipes at his bloody nose with the back of his hand and grasps his stinging arm. Warm blood runs between his fingers.

He thinks that he is safe in the air until he sees a flaming ball of rock flying towards him.

He wills all of the wind he can summon to whirl around him. He pushes his hands towards the ball of fire and the wind blasts the rock a few inches back from him. The fire from the rock is mostly extinguished. He wills the pressure from the air to push down on the rock, which falls to the ground a couple yards away.

Jason predicts it's safer on the ground and falls back to earth, letting the wind cushion his fall.

His eyes dart around frantically when his feet touch the ground. Where to go? He spots the tunnels. Bingo! Jason runs at top speed towards the trenches, tripping people from the Third Cohort with his lance as he goes. His shirt sticks to him with sweat, and he can feel the warm blood dripping off his chin. His arm stings from the wound.

Once he reaches the tunnels, he looks behind him to make sure no one is following, and slips into the tunnel. He steadies his breathing and rests for a few seconds, then begins to run again.

He hears someone say,"Jason went into the tunnel-"

Someone else mutters something and Jason starts to run faster.

Footsteps running behind him. Jason makes the mistake of turning around, and sees Reyna running after him. Her glowing Imperial gold spear lighting the dark tunnel.

Jason curses out loud. He stops running and turns around. He laughs like a lunatic. His lance crackles with electricity, and he must have a pretty crazy look in his eyes because Reyna hesitates for a few seconds, her spear lowered slightly.

"Jason, don't-"

BOOM! The whole tunnel shakes, then cracks start to form in the roof of the trench. The last thing he remembers before he gets knocked out is Reyna pushing him out of the way.

"Jason. Jason. Wake up." Reyna says. Her voice sounds distant. A stinging feeling flashes across his cheek. Jason has a sudden wave of fear sweep over him, but he doesn't know why.

"Mother of fauns!" Jason screams, bolting upright. The blood rushes to his head and he leans back against the rock wall for support, waiting for the throbbing in his head to subside.

"Did you just... Slap me?" He asks, rubbing his cheek.

"Well, yeah. I had to wake you up somehow." Reyna shrugs.

Jason touches his nose tentatively, which has stopped bleeding. His nostrils, mouth, and chin is covered with mostly dried blood. He looks at his left arm, which throbs and stings at the same time. Reyna must have wrapped it, because there's a purple cloth wrapped around his arm. He notices that the sleeves of his camp shirt have been ripped off.

"Why didn't you use your own shirt to bandage my arm?"

"You look better without sleeves." Reyna said, shrugging.

"I do?"

"Yeah. And I didn't want to tear my lucky shirt."

Jason nods. He didn't know she had a lucky shirt, or even believed in luck for that matter.

That's when he takes a look around him for the first time. He jumps so badly that he kicks Reyna and bumps his head on the stone.

"Ow! What is it, Jason?"

Jason can't talk. He looks around him in fear. They are trapped under rubble. The cramped space makes Jason unable to breathe. When he's trapped somewhere, especially underground, he gets claustrophobic. That's why he wants to be cremated when he dies.

There's probably only about ten feet to move around in, and he sees no sky above them. Only earth, rocks, and dirt trapping them on all sides.

The space seems to be closing in on him. The room spins and he feels dizzy, as if the ground has turned to waves under his feet. He feels like he's going to pass out again. Oh no, now he's going to throw up. He hopes that he doesn't barf on Reyna. That would suck.

"Whoa. Jason, are you okay? You look like you've just seen a Lar."

Jason shakes his head and the nauseous feeling still overtakes him. A numbness starts in his brain and goes throughout his body. Spinning, still spinning. Jason suddenly can't breathe and he finds himself hyperventilating.

"Hey, Jason? Jason! What's wrong," Reyna looks at him with worry and fear. He looks up at her with wide eyes. Tears overtake his vision, and without closing his eyes, tears stream down his face.

He starts sobbing uncontrollably. His nose runs and cheeks feel burning hot.

Jason drops his head in his hand. She takes his other hand in hers and sits close to him so their shoulders are touching.

"Jason, I can't help you if you won't talk to me." Reyna whispers softly, as if talking to a wounded demigod on the brink of death, trying to calm them in their last moments.

"C-Claustrophobic. Something a-as endless as the sky can't be confined. It g-goes insane or s-something." Is all he manages to get out, because his voice is shaking so badly.

Tremors take him over. He shivers as if he'd been thrown in the North Pole wearing nothing but shorts. Jason keeps hyperventilating. No air. He can not get enough air. His heart is pounding too fast.

He's not getting enough blood to his brain and he's paralyzed with fear. His vision goes funny, and everything goes blurry. Oh crap, now he is going blind, too. He can only see what's right in front of him. He can't see to the sides. What is it called? Tunnel vision?

"Okay. Come here, lie down." Reyna says calmly. She puts his head in her lap, and this helps Jason's heart calm down the tiniest bit. Reyna runs her fingernails through his hair. It might actually feel sort of nice, if Jason wasn't sobbing and hyperventilating like a child who had a freak encounter with the Boogeyman.

Jason tries to calm down a bit. His breathing becomes a little steadier, but still is very uneven. He no longer feels dizzy, but his head still throbs and he's still shaking but has stopped sobbing. Now, tears just fall from his cheeks into Reyna's dust covered armor.

"Put your first two fingers on my wrist. Feel my heartbeat?" Reyna asks, putting his fingers over her wrist where her pulse is. Jason feels the steady beat of her heart. So relaxed compared to his which is sure to beat out of his chest. He nods yes.

"Good. Now, close your eyes. You're laying on the grass looking up at the clouds. Do you feel the cold wind on your face? The moon is full, and there are a couple of stars out but you can't really see them because of the clouds. Focus on my heartbeat. Match your breathing to it." Reyna says in her soft voice.

Jason feels the rough of her wrist, where he had burned her with electricity earlier. He focuses on the sky in his mind, and sees the moon, and feels the cool air that Reyna was describing to him.

"Sorry I hurt you."

"It's okay. I'm sorry about your nose. It's not broken is it?"

"No."

"Good... Maybe we shouldn't take the War Games so seriously from now on."

Jason half smiles and nods, "That would be good."

"So we're okay."

"Yeah. I won't be sucking you into tornadoes anytime soon."

Reyna laughs softly at this.

He shivers again and feels sweat break out on his hairline. But, she keeps stroking his head anyway. They're both silent. Jason listens to her steady breathing. He keeps his eyes shut and imagines they're sitting in green grass in the middle of the night. That the Titan War is over, and they're together. As in together together. Somehow, the fantasy helps him feel like he has a better grip on reality.

"Sorry you have to see me like this." Jason says. He feels pathetic, embarrassed, and stupid all at the same time. Especially in front of Reyna, who isn't afraid of anything.

"Sshh. It's perfectly fine. What is a hero without fear?" Reyna asks. She brushes his cheek, then returns to scratching his head. Jason sighs almost contentedly.

"A pretty great one." Jason mutters, turning his head away from her. His fingers are still on her wrist, and he relaxes and tries to breathe slowly, in time with her heartbeat.

"You're so wrong," Reyna mutters. Jason looks up at her in confusion through his tears which are now drying on his cheeks. "Heroes who are too afraid to admit that they have fears are not true heroes. Real heroes are those who accept their fears, and face it head on in order to overcome it. It's more cowardly to lie and not admit that you're afraid, and braver to say that you are and come to terms with your fears. It's even braver when you try to defeat them."

"That's sort of- I don't know- deep."

"Thank you."

"Welcome. How long do you think we're going to be stuck here? What if they never find us?"

"Don't be stupid. They saw the tunnel collapse. I'll bet they're already trying to get us out right now."

The thought of being stuck in here makes Jason feel dizzy again, but his heart seems to be fine and not as jumpy as before. He might actually be sort of comfortable.

He suddenly asks,"How?"

"How what?"

"How did you know how to calm me down?"

"Oh. My sister would do that whenever I was scared or nervous. Except she'd always braid my hair. I don't know why. Maybe because it gave her something to do."

Jason's breathing has slowed down to her heart rate, and Jason figures that as long as he doesn't open his eyes, he'll be okay.

"Thank you, Reyna." Jason whispers. His fingers slide down to hers, where he laces their hands and holds fast while her other hand rests on his temple.

They wait for a while, until help arrives to clear the debris. Which eventually, it does.