The House of Hades

Chapter 23: Jason

Hooray! I actually managed to update like I said I would, despite the writer's block I got in the middle of writing it!

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Chapter 23: Jason

Jason was officially losing it. The moment Leo walked away, he collapsed to the ground, his face in his hands.

The past three days after he had escaped had been some of the hardest of his life. Two straight days with no food, very little water, and weighed down with grief and guilt that he had been cowardly enough to leave Piper.

Piper. There it was. The heart of his problems. After the terrible dream he had had of her last night, he felt as though every time he thought of her, a little bit of his sanity was chipped away. He remembered how she had always been there for him, always the comforting, forgiving one. Jason's mind wandered back to when they had been drowning in the nymphaeum. How Piper had told him she loved him. He had never said that to her. He never realized it until she was gone.

And then there was the leadership role thrust upon him. In addition to wallowing in grief and guilt, he was the one who was supposed to make all the decisions, to figure out how the heck they were going to pull this quest off.

Jason allowed himself five more minutes of self pity before pulling himself together, brushing away the tears that were threatening to fall. He had to be stronger than this. Percy and Annabeth were in Tartarus for Hades' sake! Jason had dreamed about them too...what he was going through was nothing compared to the pain they were enduring.

He pulled himself up, thinking about how he was going to try and contact Percy and Annabeth. He hadn't been lying to Leo about that, though he had decided not to mention that he was going to try and contact Piper as well.

Suddenly Jason heard a rasping voice behind him,

Jason Grace, we've been waiting to taste your blood

Jason whirled around, his sword out in a flash, cleaving down to kill...Nico.

Nico was rolling on the ground, positively howling with laughter. Jason stopped the sword from disemboweling Nico just in time.

"Sorry," he muttered, sheathing the sword.

"Don't be," Nico chuckled, "I haven't laughed this much since Percy managed to misplace Riptide,"

"What?" Jason said distracted, "I thought his sword always returns to his pocket,"

"That's why it was so funny," Nico said, nodding, "Annabeth was so exasperated..." Jason allowed Nico five more seconds of reminiscing before clearing his throat loudly, snapping Nico back to the present.

"Why did you come back? I thought you were with Hazel and Frank," he asked.

"I thought so too," Nico said, smirking, "but they were so moony-eyed for each other, I think they forgot I was even there. So I took the message, and came back. I thought I could help you with whatever you're doing,"

"I'm trying to see if I can contact Percy and Annabeth...and maybe Piper," Jason confessed.

Nico nodded, "I get it. So what should we try first?"

"An Iris-Message? It probably won't work, but it's worth a try," 

"Well," Nico said, scratching his head, "It's not really a question of whether it'll work rather than whether Iris will be willing to let it through. She has certain...reservations about letting messages through to certain places," he shrugged, "but it's worth a try,"