Chapter Text
After the great Valkyrie Vision catastrophe that was… that, Jason was judged and ultimately welcomed into Valhalla by extreme technicality.
“A god,” Odin hummed. Jason sat stiffly next to his Valkyrie who was just relieved about a positive judgement before she flew off. “Not many here who can say they’ve saved a god. Not many here who aren’t beneath the Norse radar before judgement, either. We’ll have a presentation about the etiquette of that later, Valkyries.”
A group of Valkyries rolled their eyes at the one who’d brought Jason here before the flock flew off.
“That said,” Odin continued, leaning forward and stroking his beard, “none of us can say it was a mistake. Someone like you will be very useful at Ragnarök, son of Jupiter. Not to mention it’ll make things pretty interesting around here. The Vikings get bored.”
Odin’s unpatched eye seemed to shine in the light of the Great Hall as he stared Jason down.
*Great, another god who’s taken a liking to me,* he thought, but nodded, and then was sent back to the table of floor 19 and sat next to Magnus once more.
“Jupiter? Isn’t that a planet?” the boy in the US military garb asked, flinging around a fork with some sort of meat on it.
“No, T.J. The planet was named after the Roman god,” Magnus corrected and turned to Jason. “Anyway, these are our other hallmates. Thomas Jefferson Jr., Mallory Keen, and Halfborn Gunderson.”
In turn, he pointed to the boy in uniform, a redhead with an unreadable expression, and the large Viking guy Jason had seen upstairs.
Jason raised his hand in a wave and each of them greeted him back in their own way before beginning a conversation he was not a part of. His hand dropped and he looked at the food on the plate and took a bite.
A few bites in, he felt eyes on him and glanced up into the eyes of Mallory. “Uh, yes?”
She reminded him so much of Apollo’s young oracle, Rachel Dare—maybe that was just in the curls of her red hair, and her green eyes.
It was an ironic comparison considering her topic of choice.
“Apollo,” Mallory said seriously. “You saved Apollo, but there was no one who looked like a god on that video.”
Magnus rubbed at his face and cut in as he sighed. “Oh, Annabeth told me about this one. He was the pimply boy in the Led Zeppelin shirt. I think.”
Jason nodded to confirm. “He was turned mortal as punishment by Zeus. The little girl with glasses on the boat was his master.”
“What about the other ones?” T.J. asked through a mouthful of food.
“One is my… ex—and friend.” He wanted to rush past that the moment the word caught in his throat. Luckily, none of the table seemed very interested in his failed relationship—he’d have to get into even more god shenanigans, and that didn’t seem much like well-mannered table talk. Though, the vikings throwing food around proved table manners weren’t the greatest here, anyway. “The other is a sorceress called Medea.”
Alex tilted her head again, those mismatched eyes trailing over him like a laser scanner. “Huh.”
Jason’s fork stopped on its journey to his mouth. Magnus saved him mercifully. “Look, I think we’ve all had enough fun for one day. We’ve got training tomorrow early. We’ll have to run Jason through the ropes.” When Alex opened her mouth again, Magnus grabbed her hand across the table. “Let it be.”
Alex rolled her eyes but set to finishing her food, getting up before anyone else and leaving, all prickles once again. Jason didn’t think he would ever figure her out. He finished his food as well and excused himself, taking the elevator after Alex’s.
He was again in the branches of his room staring out the giant window facing the Valhallan battlefield. Dinner had ended hours ago but he didn’t really feel like sleeping. He was used to being awake at night anyhow. Between quests and a lingering habit from his time with the wolves as a toddler; he’d never quite managed to shake his mildly nocturnal nature.
The tree at least made this place feel a bit more like home. Everything else was, unsurprisingly, a good deal unfamiliar. Maybe he could convince Annabeth and the others to give him some familiar things to bring over during their next call.
The only difficulty was when that’d be considering that the only cell phone around belonged to a certain Alex Fierro whose boyfriend continued to have to make nice between them.
Jason sat up on the large branch, fingers gentle against the smooth bark of the World Tree, mind running over everything he’d learned today.
The silence, however, was beginning to hurt his head.
He dropped down to the grass again, running his hand over his hair and rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses. His feet dragged him to his new bed and he stumbled down onto the sheets. Giving it a few minutes, the stress turned into its final form of exhaustion even when he wasn’t tired moments before. Jason passed out within an unfamiliar comfort.
A dream took him, as they often did.
He blinked his eyes open to a temple, strangely. The inside of a very familiar one from Camp Jupiter; the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus stood before him in all its marbled glory.
When Jason looked down, he noticed that he was also made of marble. A statue within the walls. There was… something in that, subconsciously, he was sure.
He tried to take a step forward, only a little surprised that that turned out to be impossible. So, he stood there, statuesque and staring straight up at the giant, marble version of his father. His ears still worked, though, picking up the sound of footsteps nearing him. They stopped right next to him, and he thought they were just staring at Jupiter as well until he heard their voice.
“This is kind of insane, huh?” Nico said. Jason wanted to jump at the startle. Instead he just turned his head toward him with a rough creak of rock against rock. Nico refused to look back at him, unflinching. “This has got to be worse than death. You should have gone to Elysium, not whatever this is.”
Jason’s jaw made that same rough noise as he cracked it open to respond. “You’re here.” In my dream? He wanted to make Nico clarify but didn’t.
“Weird place.” Nico blinked at the walls around them both, taking everything in. “Looks exactly like the real thing, though, so bonus points. Or condolences for memorising it.”
“Thank you, Nico,” Jason said, attempting a smile. Then Nico wrinkled his nose at the large statue of Jupiter and he let it fall. “So, what are you doing here?”
“Had to see for myself.”
Simple. That felt too simple. Annabeth had said Nico was the one fighting them about his death not being real. That he knew Jason was still around even after there had been witnesses—not to mention a funeral and everything.
“Are you all right?” he asked before he could stop himself. He watched Nico freeze up. Even his own stony figure felt the room temperature drop. “You don’t have to be.”
Nico finally looked up at him, and then back down. His jaw creaked like it was stone itself. Death always was a hard subject; emotions were even harder. “When it all happened,” Nico began, “thinking I’d lost you… it was the worst thing imaginable. Worse than most things I’ve been through. But something inside me knew, even before I really registered my senses. As much as everyone thought I was in denial—and maybe I was for a while—I knew. How else would I have stayed so sane?”
Jason cracked a smile again, properly this time. “You’re a good friend, Nico. Even if it was a Valkyrie who brought me here, I’d like to think it’s your belief that really kept me alive. Even if it means I’m now some eternal soldier…”
He lowered his head with a sigh. Wind whistled through the marble pillars. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nico reaching for his hand. The clink of his ring against Jason’s stone was loud in the otherwise quiet. He didn’t quite grab onto him, just brushing by, but it meant a lot to Jason regardless. “You have to go now.”
“Yeah,” Nico said, not asking how Jason knew, or whether and why he was trying to get rid of him so fast. “Meet me next week at the border of New Rome?”
“Oh.” Jason blinked but nodded quickly. “Yeah, sure. New Rome.” This would be fun to explain to the rest of the Senate.
Nico gave a snort, pulling his hand back and digging into his pocket. “Uh, and before I forget, Annabeth got this for you. I figure it’ll be more useful now than later.”
He knelt and set a small black flipphone by Jason’s statuesque feet. Like an offering. His dark eyes glanced at the statue of Jupiter again and then he met Jason’s. “See you in a week.”
“See you…”
But he’d blinked out of the dream before Jason could fully finish speaking. His attention fell to the phone on the ground and in a swift motion he swept down to pick it up, his body suddenly lighter, birdlike. His new form of an eagle perched on the pillar beside Jupiter’s head, his own turning this way and that curiously. His claws clutched the phone tightly and held it close to himself.
He closed his eyes and willed himself to wake.
And nearly fell out of bed when consciousness came to him. His blankets managed to catch him before he made a complete trip down, and he untangled himself and settled staring at the ceiling above his bed. He was half surprised he didn’t wake in the tree with the dream of flying. Then again, he wasn’t actually a shapeshifter, not like Frank—or Alex.
At least he didn’t have to use her phone anymore to keep in contact with his old friends.
The dream rushed back and he threw off his blankets to try and find the device. That was real, right? Nico had seemed so real. The phone, too.
He heard it crash to the floor with his movement and dropped to grab it. Luckily, it was basically a brick so it was fine and he opened it and checked to see what contacts had been implemented—Annabeth, Percy, even Chiron’s camp number. That all made sense considering most demigods didn’t use phones. Certainly not Nico. Those would do anyhow.
And then there was the matter of today. Magnus had mentioned training early. Jason had a feeling it would be different than any training he was used to. These guys were vikings, after all.
His head fell back against the side of the bed, groaning. His hands rubbed at his face and he set his new cellphone down and reached to grab his glasses, and then like the night before, he got up to leave when he heard the exit horn.
His feet had barely hit the hallway carpet and an ax was already being waved in his face. The breeze ruffled his hair and skewed his glasses.
Halfborn, the ax’s wielder, shouted something at Mallory but she was already at the elevator to head downstairs. "Uh—"
Alex in cheetah form tore past him, and Magnus after her, yelling only a, "Morning, Jason!" as he passed. They too disappeared into the elevator, leaving him alone and confused for a few moments. Only a few, though. There was no more breeze or animal sounds but when Jason looked over his shoulder he was surprised to see T.J. smile and nod politely at him.
"Morning!" he chirped. Jason nodded back silently. "Sleep well?"
"Slept fine," Jason answered slowly. "How about you?"
"Good as always!" He slung an arm around Jason's shoulders. "Always love having a new comrade join the force! And your battle experience makes me even happier! Excited for your first one here?"
Not really, Jason thought. Instead of saying so though, he just smiled and nodded back. T.J. beamed. "Great! Well, breakfast won't wait! Let's get down there!"
More of Jason's slow reaction time led to him being left alone in the hallway once again.