━━ chapter twenty-three
family grace
( jason )

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

     ━━Jason felt like his knees were going to cave out on him. Was he dreaming? Would someone pinch him and he'd wake up on that bus all over again, his memories wiped and searching for her━she who stood right there ... real, alive ... not just a face on a picture, a distant memory━she stood there right in front of him: Thalia Grace and Jason wondered whether it was too good to be true. He wondered whether he was wrong. That this ache in his chest, searching for his sister was just another cruel trick━

    Until Thalia's eyes watered━the electric blue glistened with a tearful storm and she launched forward to hug him. 

    Jason stiffened. He didn't know what to do. There was part of him that wanted to slump and break down into tears. He felt that lump in his throat, but there was another side of him that wouldn't let him. That discipline. He had to stay strong. He had to stay a leader. He was a soldier━he had to stay a soldier.

     But she was real.

     She was real. 

     Jason's arms shook as he carefully wrapped them around his older sister, scared that she'd disappear. He couldn't stop the tear that escaped and he clenched his eyes shut, hiding it by letting his head fall into his sister's shoulder. She looked barely older than him, but he knew she was. She was at his height━it didn't seem right ... after all those years. 

     "My gods!" sobbed Thalia Grace. She pulled away to grip his face, her hands just as clammy and shaky as his. "She━she told me you were dead!" Her eyes searched him━everything, from his brows to his hair to the scar on his lip. At the sight of it, she grew even more tearful. "Thank Artemis, it is you," those words almost cracked in the back of her throat. Jason tried to swallow the lump in his throat to speak, but he couldn't find the strength to do it. He just stared back at her, unable to believe he had found her ... he finally found her. He felt like he had been on this journey way before he lost his memory. Jason had been searching for his older sister the moment he registered that he lost her. Just barely three-years-old, all alone and scared, left to defend for himself against the wolves and Lupa's training. 

     Thalia chuckled, her voice heavy. "That little scar on your lip━you tried to eat a stapler when you were two!"

     Jason knew Leo couldn't stop the laugh that burst out of his lips, "Seriously?"

     Hedge nodded, as if he approved of Jason's taste. "Staplers━excellent source of iron."

    He barely paid attention to either of them. He felt sick at what Thalia had said. He forced his words up from his throat, "W━wait," he stammered. "Who told you I was dead? What happened?"

     At the cave entrance, one of the white wolves barked. Thalia glanced back at the wolf and nodded, but she kept her hands on Jason's face. She was afraid he'd vanish, too. "My wolf is telling me I don't have much time, and she's right. But we have to talk. Let's sit."

     Piper did better than that. She collapsed. Jason's eyes tore from his sister, feeling his heart jolt. He wanted to run to her, but he couldn't move his feet. He watched, helpless, as she was caught just in time by Coach Hedge, who managed to stop her from cracking her head on the cave floor.

     Thalia rushed over. "What's wrong with her? Ah━" she felt Piper's skin, recognising the tone better than any of them could, "━never mind. I see. Hypothermia." She frowned at Hedge. "Don't you know nature healing?"

     Coach Hedge brayed a scoff, "Bah━ah!" he bleated indigiantly. "Why do you think she looks this good? Can't you smell the Gatorade?"

     Savreen added helpfully, "He did keep her alive."

     She still looked shaken━confused and terrified. Jason was unsure on what had happened himself, but his mind was so muddled, he didn't think of it. Right now, all that crossed his head was that Thalia was alive, and she was here━and she was real. 

     Thalia pursed her lips and settled her gaze onto Leo. It turned stern, like suddenly, everything had just become his fault. Then, she fixed her gaze back onto Savreen. Leo frowned, startled. He glanced at them all as if to say, yo, what did I do? "Take the boy and the satyr with your friend to Phoebe at the entrance. She's an excellent healer."

    Savreen glanced, unsure back at Jason. He realised that she was wary to leave him alone, concerned. Jason realised that he didn't exactly want to be left alone with his sister, either. The thought of Leo and Savreen leaving with Coach and Piper made his stomach lurch━he needed something familiar. They were the only familiar people in his life these past few days, everything else was hazy and muddled. But they━right now━were even more real than Thalia. 

     "It's cold out there!" complained Hedge. "I'll freeze my horns off!"

    Leo sighed, waving a hand out towards the storm, "Come on, Hedge. These two need time to talk."

    Coach Hedge huffed. But in the end, he muttered, "Fine," he hoisted Piper up to carry her. "Didn't even get to brain anybody."

    They started towards the entrance. Leo and Sav were about to follow, but Jason found himself calling out, "A━actually, um ... could you guys━uh━s ... stick around?"

     He felt stupid for asking. Vulnerable, even. But he was scared. Jason has faced so much so soon, but he's never been as terrified as he was right now. 

     They glanced back. Savreen titled her head; she just seemed to read him so easily, he knew he didn't need to say anything else. She understood. "Okay," said Savreen softly.

     Beside her, Leo realised, too. He smiled and nodded━a genuine smile that was rare upon his face. "Sticking around is our specialty," he said and Jason felt a wave of gratitude. 

     Thalia didn't look too happy about it, but the four of them sat together at the fire. For a few minutes, nobody spoke. Jason wanted to say something. But what was he supposed to say? What could he say? Everything he had imagined these past three days just flew out of the cave and got lost in the storm and he was left speechless, like he didn't even have a voice anymore. He studied his sister, feeling her stare back at him━amazed, albeit calm, like this was some casual reunion and she was reminiscing of how much he's grown ... it unsettled him. Savreen sat beside Leo, close to keep warm as he pulled out pieces of copper wire and twisted them together. She was always quiet, but when Jason searched for that calming effect she held, even she was tense and with bated breath, feeling the suffocating air. 

     In the end, Leo broke. "So ..." he spoke up and Thalia's gaze snapped to his, annoyed, "... the Hunters of Artemis. This whole 'not dating' thing━is that like ... always? Or more of a seasonal thing or what?"

     Jason caught what seemed like a flicker of hurt cross Sav's eyes. She pursed her lips, brows knitting together before she looked down to her fingers, as if confused as to why she felt upset over his words. Jason kicked Leo in the shin, not just for Sav's sake, but also his sister's━or perhaps to just save his backside, because she was glowering at him like considering the best way to murder. "Don't mind Leo," Jason found his voice. "He's just trying to break the ice." And he seemed to have done exactly that, for Jason's question just flowed out, "But, Thalia ... what happened to our family? Who told you I was dead?"

     Thalia tugged at a silver bracelet on her wrist. In the firelight, she looked as pale as a ghost━blending into the snow outside. She didn't look so calm anymore. "Do ... do you remember anything?" she asked him.

    Jason shook his head. "I woke up three days ago on a bus with Leo, Sav and Piper."

     "Which wasn't our fault," added Leo quickly. He pointed between him and Sav━mostly him. "J━just to make that clear ... okay? Hera stole his memories."

     Thalia tensed. "Hera? How do you know that?"

     Jason took a deep breath and explained their quest━the prophecy at camp, Hera getting imprisoned, the giant taking Piper's father, Savreen's necklace and the winter solstice deadline; everything. He didn't realise how much he needed to expell it all out until now, and Thalia was a great listener. Nothing seemed to suprise her━the monsters, the prophecies, the dead rising. Not even Savreen's necklace. But when Jason mentioned King Midas, she cursed in Ancient Greek. 

     "I knew we should've burned down his mansion," she said. "That man's a menace. But we were so intent on following Lycaon━well, I'm glad you got away. So, Hera's been ... what, hiding you all these years?"

     He felt terrible to say. "I don't know." His fingers found the photo in his pocket. His grimy fingers brushed over the face of a younger Thalia, a boy with chilling blue eyes and a crooked grin, and two young girls with blonde hair. One with a startling grey gaze, and the other with crumbs on her lips like she had just been eating cookies. She was smiling so brightly she looked like she stood on sunshine. Jason knew now it was Claire━he wondered whether she still smiled like that. In the short time he knew her, Jason never knew she could. "She left me just enough memory to recognise your face."

     Thalia looked at the picture. Her stern, hawk features softened. Jason let her hold it, and he watched her trace a finger around younger Annabeth and Claire, eyes distant with nostalgia. "I'd forgotten about that. I left it in Cabin One, didn't I?" she passed it back, and Jason held it close. 

     He nodded. "I think Hera wanted us to meet. When we landed here, at this cave ... I had a feeling it was important. Like ... I ... I knew you were close by. Is that ..." he flushed, a little embarassed. "Is that crazy?"

      Savreen reached out and squeezed his arm. She shook her head with a small smile. He returned it with a grateful one of his own.

     "Nah," Leo assured him. Jason moved the weak smile over to him. "We were absoluely destined to meet your hot sister━ow!" this time, Savreen hit him. He held his arm, shocked she'd resort to violence. 

     "Let them speak," she whispered to him.

     "I am letting them speak━" whispered Leo back in a rush, "━man, do you have a strong hand━why would you hit me like that━?"

     "Shhh," she took his hand. Despite the scowl upon her face, Jason noticed as soon as she did, Leo stopped fidgeting. He stared at their hands, and his tension fell away. Jason thought they were like fire and water; energetic and calm. Water doused the fire, but Leo erupted up a storm in Savreen━a perfect balance. Jason found himself wanting to smile at it.

     "Jason," Thalia made him glance back over, "when you're dealing with the gods, nothing is too crazy. But you can't trust Hera, especially since we're children of Zeus. She hates all children of Zeus."

     "But she said something about Zeus giving her my life as a peace offering. Does that make any sense?"

     All the colour drained from Thalia's face. "Oh, gods..." she breathed. "Mother wouldn't have ... You don't remember━No, of course you don't ..."

    Jason's stomach jolted, "What?"

     His sisters features seemed to grow older all of the sudden. "Jason ..." Her voice was dry and cracked. "I'm not sure how ... how to say this. Our mom she ... well, she wasn't exactly stable. She caught Zeus's eye because she was a television actress, and she was beautiful, but she didn't handle the fame well. She drank, pulled stupid sunts. She was always in the tabloids. She could never get enough attention. Even before you were born, she and I argued all the time. She ... she knew Dad was Zeus, and I think that was too much for her to take. It was like the ultimate achievement for her to attract the lord of the sky, and she couldn't accept it when he left. The thing about the gods ... well, they don't hang around."

     Jason felt something inside him sink the more and more Thalia continued. His mother ... he didn't think any kid wished to hear that their mother was not a good person. Jason knew that his memory loss didn't account for why he couldn't remember his mom, but he had hopes━he had high hopes. That there was someone out there that loved him, and wanted him to come home. That where he was from, there was a warm bed, and a hug, and someone telling him they missed him. 

     Now he knew, that whatever that was, it wasn't what he had imagined. 

     Had he always been alone? Was this constant sad feeling inside him, like a gaping hole, the other thing Hera couldn't take away. She could steal his memories, steal his life, but she couldn't steal the fibre of Jason's being. She couldn't steal the sadness of a broken kid, a broken teen━that was rooted in Jason; nothing could take that away.

      Jason will always be searching. For memories, for friends, for his sister, for family, for the truth ... for peace.

      "So ..." his words fell away. He seemed to have lost his voice.

     "Jason, you've got friends," Leo told him. "Now you've got a sister. You're not alone."

     "We're here," added Savreen. Jason knew she meant it.

     You're not alone. 

     But maybe, finally, Jason found something again. 

     Thalia offered her hand, and he took it.

    "When I was about seven," she went on, "Zeus started visiting Mom again. I think he felt bad about wrecking her life, and he seemed━different somehow. A little older and sterner, more fatherly towards me ... for a while, Mom improved. She loved having Zeus around, bringing her presents, causing the sky to rumble. She always wanted more attention. That's the year you were born. Mom ... well, I never got along with her, but you gave me a reason to hang around. You were so cute. And I didn't trust Mom to look after you. Of course, Zeus eventually stopped coming by again. He probably couldn't stand Mom's demands anymore, always pestering him to let her visit Olympus, or to make her immortal or eternally beautiful ... or maybe, he just didn't care. Anyway, when he left for good, Mom got more and more unstable. That was about the time the monsters started attacking me. Mom blamed Hera. She claimed the goddess was coming after you, too━that Hera had barely tolerated my birth, but two demigod children from the same family was too big an insult. Mom even said she hadn't wanted to name you Jason, but Zeus insisted, as a way to appease Hera because the goddess liked that name. I didn't know what to believe."

     Jason hated hearing this, but he knew he had to. He needed the truth about his life, for once. "How did you guys get separated?"

    Thalia squeezed his hand. "If I'd known you were alive ... gods, things would've been so different. But when you were two, Mom packed us in the car for a family vacation. We drove up North, towards the wine country, to this park she wanted to show us. I remember thinking it was strange, because Mom never took us anywhere, and she was acting super nervous. I was holding your hand, walking you towards the big building in the middle of the park, and ..." she took a shaky breath. She looked tearful again. "M━Mom told me to go back to the car and get the picnic basket. I━I promise, I━I didn't want to leave you alone with her, but it was only for a few minutes. When I came back ... Mom was kneeling on the stone steps, hugging herself and crying. She said━she said you were gone. She said Hera claimed you and you━you were as good as dead. I didn't know what she'd done. I was afraid she'd completely lost her mind. I ran all over the place looking for you, but you'd just vanished. She had to drag me away, kicking and screaming. For the next few days, I━I was hysterical. I don't remember everything, but I━I called the police on Mom and they questioned her for a long time. Afterwards, we fought. She told me I'd betrayed her, that I should support her, like she was the only one who mattered. Finally, I couldn't stand it. Your disappearence was the last straw. I ran away from home, and I never went back, not even ... not even when Mom died a few years ago. I thought you were gone forever.

     "I found ... I found Luke, and he had run away just like me. Then, we found a girl in an alley. She ... Claire reminded me of you. She was alone, and she was scared━her mother had left her there. And then the three of us, we found Annabeth ..." Thalia pursed her lips. "I never told anyone about you━not even Annabeth, Claire and Luke, my best friends. It ... it was just too painful ..."

     "Chiron knew," his own voice sounded far away, like he was speaking back to himself through the wind. "When I got to camp, he took one look at me and said, 'You should be dead'."

      "That doesn't make sense," insisted Thalia. She sniffled back her tears. "I never told him."

      "Hey," said Leo. "Important thing is that you've got each other now, right? You two are lucky."

      "You found each other," smiled Savreen. 

     Thalia nodded. She gave Leo the first glance that was without a glare. "They're right. Look at you━" she shook Jason's hand, chuckling, "━you're my age! You've grown up."

     "But where have I been?" asked Jason. "How could I be missing all that time? And the Roman stuff..."

    Thalia frowned. Her grip on his hand slackened. "The Roman stuff?"

    "Your brother speaks Latin," said Leo bluntly. "He calls gods by their Roman names, and he's got tattoos━" he pointed out the marks on Jason's arm. Then he and Savreen told Thalia everything else Jason missed: Boreas turning into Aquilon, Lycaon calling Jason a 'child of Rome' and the wolves backing off when Jason spoke Latin to them.

     Thalia lucked her bowstring, thoughtful. "Latin. Zeus sometimes spoke Latin ... the second time he stayed with Mom. Like I said, he seemed different, more formal."

     "You think he was in his Roman aspect?" said Jason. "And that's why I think of myself as a child of Jupiter?"

     She shrugged. His sister looked troubled, like the demigods at Camp Half-Blood had when they saw Jason's tattoo. "Possibly. I've never heard of something like that happening, but it might explain why you think in Roman terms, why you can speak Latin rather than Ancient Greek━"

     "It's happened before," Jason found himself saying.

     The others frowned at him. "What?" asked Savreen, confused.

     Jason brought a hand to his head. He had a growing headache. "I━I don't know, I just ..." his heart pounded, like he should know this. Like there was somebody━there was a name on the tip of his tongue. "There's ... there's someone else, like me━someone━he━he━his sister, I ..." he shook his head, leaning forward to take a deep breath in hopes to stop the growing pain in his head.

     Savreen reached out to rub his back, concerned. "Jason, it's okay."

     Thalia looked unsure━as if torn between asking what he meant, or whether to call for her medic friend that she told Piper and Hedge to go to. "Either way ..." she started again, worried, "it still doesn't explain how you've survived without Camp Half-Blood. A child of Zeus, or Jupiter, or whatever you want to call him━you would've been hounded by monsters. If you were on your own, you should've died years ago. I knew I wouldn't have been able to survive without friends. You would've needed training, a safe haven━"

     "He wasn't alone," said Sav, grim. She gripped Jason's shirt, scared he'd pass out. Jason sure felt like it. "We've heard about others like him."

     Thalia looked at her and Leo strangely, "What do you mean?"

    Leo told her about the slashed-up purple shirt in Medea's department store, and about how the Cyclopes━Jason had been unconscious for that━told him about the child of Mercury who spoke Latin.

     "Isn't there anywhere else for demigods?" he then asked. "I mean, besides Camp Half-Blood? Maybe some crazy Latin teacher has been abducting children of the gods or something, making them think like Romans."

      Thalia was back to looking very troubled. "I've been all over the country," she mused. "I've never seen evidence of a crazy Latin teacher, or demigods in purple shirts. Still ..." her voice trailed off. 

     Jason sat back up. His hands fell away from his head. "What?"

    Thalia shook her head. "I'll have to talk to the goddess. Maybe Artemis will guide us."

     "She's still talking to you? Most of the gods have gone silent."

    "Artemis follows her own rules. She has to be careful not to let Zeus know, but she thinks Zeus is being ridiculous closing Olympus. She's the one who set us on the trail of Lycaon. She said we'd find a lead to a missing friend of ours."

     "Percy Jackson," said Sav. "Claire's━I mean, the guy she's looking for."

    "Claire's boyfriend?" Thalia sounded like she wanted to joke about it, but couldn't get the amusement to leave her tongue. She nodded, her brows knitted with worry. "Yeah. She's out of her mind with worry. But ... it's not the first time they've been separated. She'll find him. Or he'll find her, or something ..."

      Sav glanced at Leo briefly, though Jason didn't think he noticed. He wondered━off handed━whether there was anyone out there who were worried that Jason had disappeared. That were searching for him like everyone was searching for Percy Jackson. 

     "So, what would Lycaon have to do with it?" asked Leo. "And how does it connect to us?"

     "We need to find out soon," admitted Thalia. "If your deadline is tomorrow, we're wasting time. Aeolus could tell you━"

     The white wolf appeared again at the entrance to the cave and yipped, annoyed and insistent. 

    "I have to get moving," Thalia stood. "Otherwise, I'll lose the other Hunters' trail. First, though, I'll take you to Aeolus's palace."

    "If you can't, it's okay━" Jason shook his head, but his sister scoffed.

     "Oh, please," she smiled and helped him up. "I haven't had a brother in years. I think I can stand a few minutes with you before you get annoying. Now, let's go!"

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

     a/n: 

      thalia: claire's boyfriend? *thinks about how claire and percy spent the entire quest in titan's curse arguing back and forth* *fucking finally like--*

     this was a leo chapter in the book, but i really wanted to make it a jason chapter because mah boi's trauma is completely overlooked.

     (minimal editing)