Hello! Enjoy today's chapter! Thanks for the continuing reviews and support! I'm always shy about writing multi-chapter stories, so this means a lot to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below. Thanks to M for texting me Leo's last words while I was on vacation.

What about Angels

Chapter VII

Jason's Nightmare

Jason's nightmare went something like this:

He was sitting by a Christmas tree. Christmas was his favourite holiday aside from the roman festivals he still went to Camp Jupiter to celebrate, so this should have been a good dream. The tree was beautiful with glowing lights and candy canes and homemade ornaments hanging on its branches. A porcelain angel with celestial bronze wings and a pure white toga was pinned on top of the tree. Jason was actually trying to coerce two little girls away from the tree, though one teetering toddler had already stolen a candy cane and was happily going at it with a mischievous look on its face.

"Alice, mommy's told you not to do that," someone said.

He saw an older version of himself outstretching his arms to catch the little girl. The frame of his glasses had changed and he didn't shave as well. He was even wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, which Piper bought for him every year.

"I think it's a lost cause," a familiar voice said behind him. Leo was sitting on the couch, bouncing a little kid on his knees. "After Maggie shows them how to do something, these kids are like her brainwashed followers."

"So Maggie was the first kid to steal a candy cane," Jason said- as if it wasn't a big deal to be talking to a long-dead guy. "Predictable."

"Tell me about it," Piper said. An even younger kid was sitting between her legs and ripping apart wrapping paper. Based on what Jason knew of young children, this too was predictable.

"I think Reyna's the one who told them those were edible though, so distribute the blame as you see fit," Piper said with a grin.

He was going to make a joke about Maggie leading a cult, but Leo suddenly acted up.

"Lucia, don't even think about it!" Leo said. "Mija, why would you put that in your… yes, cue the crying, of course. Well, at least she won't do it again. Okay mija, I'm coming…"

He got up and chased after a little girl.

"Look at that," Piper said with a smile in his direction. "Uncle Leo finally gets tied down and becomes a Papa Leo. I guess we have seen it all."

Jason laughed and kissed his own little girl on the head, knowing that Leo was doing the same to comfort his own baby.

Leo was leaning against the wall of a hotel, the jacket of a nice suit folded over his arm. His hair was brushed and everything. There was not an oil stain to be seen on his face or hands (that, of course, was all Piper's doing- but the fact that Leo had let her was, in itself, an indicator that today was a special day). "Shouldn't you be with the bride?" Jason teased him.

"She's dancing with Percy right now," Leo said. "And it's so hot in there, I needed some air. I've got too many relatives in there to let my guard down. That's not even counting the in-laws."

"Fair enough," Jason said with a grin. Leo had been dancing for the last two hours nonstop. He deserved his break.

"You have no idea how lucky you got with Piper's dad on the in-law front," Leo said. "I have twenty-five new Mexican aunts on my tail."

"Yeah, but I did get Aphrodite," Jason said. There was nothing worst than your mother-in-law pulling you out of class or away from work to grill you about what you were planning for your wedding anniversary- or worst.

"Oh dear gods," Leo said. "I can't even."

Jason laughed and gave Leo a shove.

"Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. You'll get used to the in-laws, of bigass families, sending a thousand Christmas cards- of everything."

"Yeah," Leo said. There was a faint smile on his face, as if he wasn't doing it on purpose but his face couldn't help itself. "I don't think I'll ever get used to being this happy."

"That's sappy, dude," Jason said with a grin.

"I know," Leo said, his smile just as big and goofy. "Don't tell Piper."

Of course there were different variations. Those, the ones with fake memories, were rare. And painful. By plugging glimpses of the future in big holes all over Jason's life, it made Leo's loss seem raw. It was like being gutted with a long, polished knife.

But usually his nightmares were like being shot by a gun- one bullet after another after another.

They were always soaring over Camp Half-Blood, or at least the battlefield that camp had become. The war machines were Greek and Roman in a mix of bronze and gold and jeans and armour. Jason was holding onto Piper. Leo was about to do something stupid and they could feel it even if he was trying to tell them that he wasn't, lying through his teeth.

"Hey, I told you I had a plan. When are you going to trust me? And by the way- I love you guys."

Then the explosion made the entire sky turn gold.

They were floating over Camp Half-Blood, and Jason had no idea how they could still hear each other over the sounds of hellhounds howling, centurions and counsellors shouting orders, the fallen screaming, swords clanging, dracanae screeching…

"Hey, I told you I had a plan," Leo said smiling bravely. "But you didn't have to believe me."

The explosion was so bright; Jason was overcome by vertigo for the first time in his life.

Camp got smaller and smaller as they rose up into the air. Everything shrunk down to the size of ants in a flurry of colours. Campers and monsters and soldiers alike were soon reduced to spots of orange and purple and gold and bronze and black and white and scarlet.

"Hey, I told you I had a plan," Leo told Jason. "Part of it was you saving me, though."

Jason screamed out loud how sorry he was, but it didn't stop the dream from looking so much like that dreadful reality.

It didn't stop the explosion that killed Leo.

The winds were carrying them far from Camp, far from the ground, far from everything they knew. But not the war; the war was always with them.

"The plan was that I thought I could count on you, Jason," Leo said looking at him.

Sometimes Leo didn't have to say anything as they soared up, leaving Camp behind.

Sometimes seeing his dead best friend was enough for Jason to wake up in cold sweat and blurry, teary eyes.

Jason didn't even have to be asleep to tell you about the Leo Dream Sequence, mostly because he'd had it before. Again and again and again. But it didn't make waking up any better.

Jason had heard that certain martial artists would break their fingers intentionally so that their bones would harden as they healed, one microfracture after another. He knew that Reyna had done it when she'd joined the legion. He was sure it had happened to him unintentionally as a demigod. But he had a sneaking suspicion that losing your best friends didn't work that way- that it didn't make you stronger, or made your loss easier. Especially if the way that he woke up after dreaming the Leo dream, breathless and panting and shivering and sweating and dizzy and nauseated, was any indicator.