(TW: Bullying, some violence,not too much though. To avoid, skip from •°•°• till the next •°•°• )
∞ Jade ∞
Where was this guy going? We walked through almost the entire dam camp! Was he going to the woods?
Yay, getting killed before your quest sounds so fun!
Wait, the dragon in the woods. THERE WAS A FUCKING DRAGON IN THE WOODS AND WE WERE HEADING RIGHT THERE!
Now, if I had any sense of rationality, I probably wouldn't be walking towards a metal dragon which had the capability to roast me alive and leave my charred remains for the cleaning harpies to devour.
But it seems that ever since finding out I was a demigod, rationality was chucked out of my dictionary.
I got tired of following after a while. I slipped into the shadows and bam! There I was standing in front of Leo Valdez.
"Hello Valdez. Out for a little walk in the moonlight, are we?" (Please tell me someone got the reference)
He was shocked. The look on his face was pure gold. I know, I know, I am cruel in that way.
Then his open mouth morphed into a smirk, and he said, "Is the pretty lady offering to take me on a walk?"
Aaaaaaaaand there it was again. The flirting. Fun. Why not flirt back?
"Maybe." I said.
"Then let's go, shall we?", he stated, continuing the flirting.
We continued down the road.
In silence.
It was getting awkward.
Just to break the tension, I started talking once again. " But seriously, where are we going? To get turned into demi-kebabs? Or perhaps the monsters would prefer to eat the good old. 'demigod-on-a-stick, seasoned with paprika and oregano'. "
Leo bit his lower lip. "You forget the 'roasted alive demigod barbeque', Princesa."
"Oh, so that's where we're going? Towards the big metal dragon?", I exclaimed, ignoring the nickname.
" Yeah.... ", he told, trailing off uncertainly at the end.
I sighed. This boy. "Do you have a penchant for wishing to die, Leo?", I asked him, " First the quest and now this. "
"Maybe." He shrugged.
"Do you even know where the dragon is?" I asked him.
"Not technically, no. But I can sense the traps along the way. See there near the tree? There's a trap, with some motor oil mixed with tabasco sauce to lure him. We should be there soon."
"Oh." Was all I managed to say.
But I didn't need to say further, because a loud roar pierced the night air.
Standing before us, in all it's glory, was the fifty ton metal fire breathing dragon.
Just as it was about to blowtorch us, I grabbed Leo's hand and shadow travelled up to a distant, but close enough place.
"Was this your plan, dragon boy? To get us blowtorched?" I said.
"Not really, no. But then plans changed since you came.... " He said, mumbling the end.
"Oh, so it's my fault now, huh? If I hadn't shadow travelled us here, we would've died. You know, I thought you would be different, finally someone who doesn't consider me a freak, but no, you're all the same. All of you. In fact, I'm not the freak here, you're the freak! You guys were ALWAYS the FREAKS! " I said in his face.
Just then, the dragon caught up to us and breathed more fire.
I was about to be turned into 'Jade BBQ', but Leo pushed me aside, taking the blast instead of me.
When it finally stopped, I could finally see again.
There he was. Leo Valdez. Still alive and well.
"H-how?" I stammered.
"Don't know." He answered, putting his hands in army jacket pockets, turning his head to the ground, a sudden intrest in the fallen leaves strewn on the ground. "The pyrokinesis powers have been there since birth, I guess. I don't want to talk about it."
He then turned his attention to the dragon. "Hey buddy. So as you can already see, you aren't getting rid of us. Better to just co-operate with us." He said.
The dragon roared in defiance, taking a step back.
"No!" Leo shouted. "It's a trap bronze brain, they're trying to catch you."
The trap sprung open, ensuring it in nets. The dragon roared even further, panicking now.
"That's going to do no good. Soon the alert for the trap will go off, and then they'll roll out here with the acid and metal cutters. You want that buddy?", he asked, questioning the dragon.
The dragon tilted his head towards the side, as if contemplating whether he should trust us or roast us alive.
SQUEAK SQUEAK CREAK SQUEEEEEEAK CREEEAAAAKK
"Yeah, that's good buddy. I'll not undo the trap, just deactivate it because it'll be easier for us. So just stay still." Said Leo, climbing up the dragon's back and locating the control panel to fix it.
I just sat back on a boulder while Leo did his thing.
There was a silence.
A long silence.
A very long silence
A very very long silence.
3000 YEARS LATER
"I'm sorry." I said. "I didn't know, really."
"It's okay", he mumbled.
It was most definitely not okay. I knew that I had gone too far by calling him a freak. Although he tried to hide it, it was pretty clear.
And I hated it. I hated the way I treated him.
After I had been treated the same.
•°•°•
Flashback
"FREAK! LOOK WHO IT IS, JADE THE JINX! ALWAYS THE JINX, JADE WHO BELONGS IN JAIL!"
"Stop it! Please! Why me? Why do you do this to me?"
They all turned to look at her. Eyes glinting maliciously, they said, "Did we give you permission to speak?"
Pushing her down, they started beating her. Kicks, Punches, anything. In the face, in the gut, anywhere they could land one.
"Stop."
It stopped. The rain if assault stopped.
"Do you see it? You see, how you're a freak? A weak nobody? Know your place, bitch." He said, smiling in her face. Facing his lackeys, he then continued, "Get it out. I think Jade here needs a shower to clean all the blood and dust and grime."
Thud!
A large black trash bag was thrown on the ground. Jeering her even further, they started dumping the trash on her.
Seconds, minutes, hours passed by. Atleast, that's how much time it seemed to Jade.
They left her in the alleyway then, left her alone bleeding on the ground.
They left her only after the shadows came.
•°•°•
"I really am sorry. I didn't know. I thought you were like them all. I was wrong. In fact, you're just someone like me, to be FRANK here." (pun intended, even though they don't know Frank yet.)
"They judged you, didn't they?" He asked me, still not looking me in the eye. "Probably even bullied you. Is that why you hate Astrid so much?"
I still felt terrible for what I had done. I knew that he must have had a bad past too, considering his.... Gift.
So I decided to do something I didn't do often. I decided to trust him. And there were only 3-4 people whom I actually trusted.
"Yeah." I said. "What about you? Where do you live? Place of birth? Obviously you're a Latino, so ethnicity isn't required here."
"Live? As of now, I'm a fugitive. I live here. Hailing from Houston, Texas. What about you?"
"What about your mom? Do you not have a good relationship with her? To answer your question, I'm from Manhattan itself. I'm a summer camper, but Annabeth IM'd me about Percy and here I am. I live with my dad and step mom."
His eyes turned even more downcast at that, if that was even possible.
"My mom's....... My mom's in a much better place now."
"Oh." Great, I ruined it again.
Another 3000 years later
"So when's your birthday?" I asked him. "Mine's November 30th."
"July 7th." He said, still not looking at me.
I had fucked up big time.
"So what do you think about the quest?", I asked him.
"Dunno. My first quest and all, you know? Not really excited to rescue the woman who threw my father off of a cliff, but oh well..."
Another one who hates the Queen Of The Heavens.
I mean, whatever she did wasn't justified, no, not at all, but her bad reputation was also caused by Zeus.
Zeus again.
I took a deep breath. "She was mocked, you know? I mean, not saying it justifies her actions, but she was. She sired your father, Hephaestus, on her own, in defiance against Zeus' numerous affairs. But when Hephaestus was born crippled.... Well, everyone mocked her for it. Said she couldn't survive without Zeus, women couldn't do anything well on their own. And I know, she shouldn't have thrown Hephaestus off Olympus, it's wrong. But I can't help feeling for her, I can't stand her taking the full blame always, not after I was treated the same way."
He finally looked up to me. "I didn't know. She doesn't really have a good reputation here, does she?"
I gave a slight smile. "No" I agreed. "She hates Amnabeth, and consequently, Percy too. And Thalia. But that's to be expected, since Thalia's Zeus' daughter. That's also one thing, Hera always makes Zeus' lovers' and kids' lives hell because Zeus forbade her to retaliate against him."
"Jeez, this lady must hate Jason. Wait, you don't think she'll kill him on sight, right?"
I chuckled. "No, she won't. She won't risk her champion. Piper said to me that she referred to Jason as her champion, and that he was given to him at birth. I suspect that Zeus gave Jason to Hera as a peace offering, and also named him after her favourite hero. "
"Geez, I feel bad for the guy. A peace offering? Really?"
"That's the Gods in a nutshell for you. Now, how much time do you think you'll take now?"
| • A U T H O R ' S N O T E • |
So, sorry for the delay. To make up for it, here's a longer chapter! I'll usually try to update once a week, but with school and all, no promises.
Also, since Jade's fatal flaw is excessive wrath, it also means she'll be angry on herself a LOT, amplifying her guilt tenfold, exactly as we see in this chapter. So that's why she decided to trust Leo, which was an out if character move for her. The second reason was that she could tell he'd been treated badly, from his reaction of her calling him a freak, and because of his powers.
Also, I have never ever flirted in my life, so please bear with my bad flirting scenes.