Hooray! I actually managed to update like I said I would, despite the writer's block I got in the middle of writing it!
_____________________________________________________________________________
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,"
Nico then pulled out of his pocket, a gold drachma, and a prism.
"Really man? You just happened to have a prism in your pocket?" Jason asked, raising his eyebrows. Nico blushed slightly.
"Just, you know, being prepared,"
He used the prism to make a rainbow, and tossed in the drachma.
"Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept our offering," Nico intoned, "show us Percy and Annabeth in T-Tartarus," Nico choked slightly on the last word.
The rainbow shimmered, and then turned completely black.
"Iris isn't letting it through," Nico muttered.
But then it cleared, Jason could see the blond head of Annabeth. It looked like she was sobbing into Percy's shoulder. They hadn't seen Jason and Nico yet. But just as Jason was about to call out their names, the Iris-message shimmered, and turned black again. Jason and Nico exchanged confused looks.
"Well, at least they're alive," Jason said tentatively.
Nico appeared to have not heard him. He just stared at the Iris-message.
"Jason...look," he said.
Jason turned, and saw that the black Iris message had shifted into a new image. There was a huge throne made of bones, and lounging on it was...
"Hello Nico," Hades said in an oily voice.
"Dad," Nico choked out, "you just intercepted the Iris message!"
Hades waved his hand dismissively,
"Jackson and Chase will have to fend for themselves. With a little help from me, of course," he smirked slightly.
"What do you mean?," Jason asked roughly, finding his voice.
"Never mind," Hades said quickly, "the point is, I have a problem that needs solving,"
Jason groaned inwardly, " And I guess this problem is too tough for you, the almighty god of the dead to solve, so you need us to do your dirty work for you?"
Hades spread his arms out wide, "What else are demigods for? Anyways, Gaea, or some of her minions most likely, seem to have stolen something quite important to me. A sword, actually," Nico looked dumbstruck, but Jason didn't see what the big issue was.
"So?" he said, shrugging, " just get one of your skeletons to forge a new one,"
Nico grabbed Jason's arm.
"Jason, it's not just a sword. It's one of his symbols of power,"
"But Pluto's symbol of power is the helm of darkness," Jason said, confused.
"I'd prefer if you referred to me as Hades," Hades called out.
"No, Jason, you see, a couple years ago, Persephone had a sword forged for Hades. But in it, are the keys of Death. They literally have the power to control death, so just a touch of the sword can kill you. But it works the other way too. The keys also have the power to stop death. Anyone holding the sword would have the power to summon any number of the dead..." Nico trailed off
"Oh gods...and Gaea has it?" Jason said, horrified.
"Yes," Hades interrupted, "anyways, it would be great if you could retrieve it for me within the next week or so. Good-bye!" And with that, he waved his hand through the Iris message.
Nico turned his intense black eyes on Jason. They were full of fear.
"What do we do now?" he asked quietly.
Jason was spared answering, though, because at that moment, Hazel and Frank hurried into the park.
"Hey guys, did you have a good time?" Jason greeted, since Nico looked incapable of saying a word.
"Oh yeah, I took Hazel to a cafe, and they had delicious pastries - ," Frank began eagerly, but Hazel interrupted,
"Forget that, dummy," she said, swatting at his arm, then she turned to Jason, "Jason, we're not in Greece,"
"What do you mean, we're not in Greece?" Jason said, caught off guard.
"I mean, that we're actually in the city of Catanzaro, off the southern coast of Italy!"
"WHAT? How?"
"It was Gaea," Nico said. His eyes were shut, but he had a thoughtful expression on his face, "She slowed us down, somehow turned us around, messed with the machinery to make it look like we're in Greece..." his expression morphed into one of terror, "which means that if she brought us here, someone, or something must be waiting for us! We have to get out of here!"
"Come on Nico, we can handle a couple monsters," Jason said easily.
"Gaea wouldn't send monsters. I bet there's someone powerful...maybe one of the minor gods gone over to her side waiting for us to fall into their trap. I'm certain of it,"
Nico's eyes flew open, and he looked wildly around, "Where's Leo? We need to leave, right now,"
"We last saw him-" Frank began, but at that moment Leo dashed into the clearing.
"Guys, we gotta go. Right now," he said, bending over to catch his breath, " there is a very angry goddess chasing us...I may have accidentally set her on fire, which made her mad..."
'"Leo, who is it?" Jason asked urgently.
"Khione," Leo wheezed, "on a hellhound...snuck up on me...I was startled, threw fire at her...she got mad...attacked...I ran for it...we gotta go, before..." At that moment, there was an earsplitting shriek,
"LEO VALDEZ, I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD FROZEN IN AN ICE CUBE BEFORE THIS IS OVER!!"
"Wow, you really made her mad," Jason said, impressed.
Leo grinned, "Yeah, goddess of snow, she completely freaked out when I threw those fireballs at her,"
"Forget about about that! Get to the ship!" Frank shouted. They all piled into the Argo II just as Khione burst into the clearing, riding a huge hellhound. She didn't look good. Her white dress was blackened , her long, white arms were smoking, and her hair was singed. And she looked mad.
Khione urged the hell hound forwards, but thankfully, the Argo II rose into the air, and evaded her.
"HA!" Frank yelled over the edge of the ship at Khione, who was looking livid. Then, she dismounted the hellhound, and closed her eyes. Snow and sleet began to swirl around her, though how it was holding up on a summer day, Jason had no idea. Khione rose in the air, her snowstorm swirling around her, and she made straight for the Argo II, shooting icicles at them.
"Oh, Hades," Jason muttered, as he took cover behind a shield to keep from being impaled. Then he got an idea. He dashed out from behind the shield to the ballistae, using the wind to deflect any icicles that came his way, aimed, and fired it straight at Khione, confident it would melt her into a pile of slush.
It was almost insulting how easily she avoided it, the winds swirling around her deflecting it. Instead, the flaming ballistae soared straight towards the city of Catanzaro, engulfing three houses in flames.
Oh gods. There had probably been people in those houses.
Hazel rushed out from behind the mast, and tried to help Jason. But just as she aimed the celestial bronze cannon, a particularly large icicle struck her in the stomach.
"No!" Jason screamed, as her face drained of all color, and she fell to the ground, convulsing. He stared at Khione's satisfied smirk.
"You'll pay for that," he muttered, and, willing the winds to carry him, he flew out to meet Khione before anyone else got hurt.
_____________________________________________________________________________
I know that wasn't my best chapter, but hopefully it wasn't that bad.
Anyways, vote, comment, you know the drill, :)