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Jason liked to be prepared. He liked strategy and knowing what was happening with his team. Even if he wasn’t so much as his team anymore as it was probably Annabeth’s team or Percy’s team. That meant knowing the team inside and out, knowing who they were and how they would work together best. Knowing who he was working with was the difference between life and death in some cases.
The people he knew best were, of course, Leo and Piper. Piper was his girlfriend and Leo was his best friend. He trusted them and they trusted him. It was with them that he knew he would have the best chance of surviving. Hell, the managed to survive the whole quest for Hera with just the three of them.
That’s not to say that he wasn’t also aware of the others.
He knew Hazel was from the forties and was still trying to adjust to this century. She did better with things in the magical world than the mortal because the mortal world changes much more often. He knew that Frank was sort of an anomaly on the team that was technically apart of both the Greek world with his shapeshifting ability and the Roman world with his father. Annabeth was the hothead of the team, she was the one who scared him most on the first appearance. The person who judo flipped Percy in front of the Romans while trying to prove that they weren’t a threat. Percy was loyal beyond reason, he didn’t understand when it was time to make the horrible, hard decisions.
But, Jason trusted them enough to willing to follow any of their leads. He understands their rationale behind what they were doing.
Except in the case of Nico di Angelo, there is where Jason had no clue why they were falling into that trap beside that he was Hazel’s only family. (Which Jason had total sympathy for as someone who grew up with no one and only found out he had a sister a few months ago) He just needed more information.
So, he decided to go to the one person on the ship that probably knew Nico the best.
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When he walked into Percy’s room, he was surprisingly alone. He pacing and looking like he was having some big inner conflict.
Seeing Jason in the doorway, he stopped pacing and smiled.
“Hey, what’s up man? Are we all meeting in the dining hall?”
“Uh, not that I know of. I was mainly coming to talk with you.”
Percy frowned a little at that, “Oh, what about?’
“About the whole Nico situation.”
Percy sat down on his bed and looked at Jason with a stormy look. “You don’t think we should go after him.”
“Only because it is so obviously a trap.”
“We’re going to save him whether you want to help or not.”
“I just have to weigh the pros and cons of what happens if something terrible happens. I have to know if this kid is gonna turn on us the second we save him.”
Percy seemed to not like that answer very much. He jumped up and said: “Oh, come on. That can’t possibly be what you think! Why in Hades would he turn on us? He’s Hazel’s brother and the person who brought her from the underworld. He may hate me sometimes, but-”
“That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you. According to everyone at camp, you know him better than everyone. I just want to know more about him.”
Percy fell back onto the bed. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything. What’s his story? I just want to understand him better.”
“Fine, under the condition that you apologize to Hazel and that you will help us save him.”
Jason shrugged, he shouldn’t have been so harsh on Hazel anyway. “Fine.”
“I met the kid when I was fourteen. He and his sister were at a boarding school in Maine where my best friend was working as a protector.”
“Wait, I thought Hazel was his only family and isn’t Annabeth, your best friend.”
“I can have more than one best friend; I happen to have two, possibly four if we count family because then I would count my mom and Tyson. One of my best friends is my girlfriend, and the other is a Satyr named Grover. Anyways, he was a cute kid.”
“Wait, what about my other question?”
Percy’s face darkened, and Jason realized maybe he should just listen to the story before he gets himself flung into the ocean.
“I’ll get there. He was the type of kid who wanted to know everything. Always asking dumb questions and relating everything to this card game that he was obsessed with.” Percy started laughing. “He asked if I was good at surfing because of my dad. He was just so excited about the whole idea that we were all basically superheroes.”
Percy suddenly stopped laughing and looked kinda guilty. Jason decided not to comment.
“Anyway, his sister Bianca joined the Hunters of Artemis. Then, a quest was issued, and Grover, Thalia, Bianca, a girl named Zoe, and I had to go save Artemis from Atlas.”
Jason was going to ask about the impossibility of a quest that huge but decided just to listen.
“I p-promised Nico that I would keep Bianca safe. I still don’t understand why Zoe decided that the girl who had just found out she was a half-blood and still didn’t know who her parents were was the right choice for this quest. Anyway, Bianca died, and Nico blamed me.
While I was telling him about that, we got attacked by these skeleton warriors. Nico got rid of them then ran away. He found out he was a son of Hades and was ‘mentored’ by a ghost named Minos.”
“Wait, as in the Greek myth?”
“Yeah, anyways Nico was desperate to find something to bring Bianca back and he still kinda hated me. I thought that he was trying to kill me in exchange for his sister.”
“He wasn’t right?!?” He doubted it was intentional, but Percy’s story wasn’t exactly painting Nico in the best light.
“No, turns out he actually wanted Daedalus’s soul. Not important-”
“That seems kinda important.”
“Well, it’s not. So, we deal with the whole Labrinth quest, and by the end of it Nico is on our side but not at camp because he’s desperate to find any information he can about his family.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Percy sighed, “Nico is also from the forties, maybe late thirties. He and Bianca were put in the Lotus Hotel, a place where time stopped, because of the great prophecy that would lead Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades to make a pact not to have any more demigod children.”
“If the big three were against children, how is it that there are currently like five children that are big three kids, including the two of us?”
“The gods are sluts that need to learn about the importance of condoms and birth control.”
Jason looked up at the sky. If there was something that Percy could say that might get him shot down, this might be it.
Nothing happened though, so Percy went along with his story.
“Nico then proposed this insane plan to defeat Kronos.”
“What was it? Do you think it could help us against the Giants?”
“No, because like I said, it was insane and caused me to swim in the River Styx after escaping Hades palace.”
Wow. Wait, one second there. Jason needed Percy to stop skipping parts.
“What do you mean escaping Hades palace or swimming in the Styx?!?”
Percy waved him off, “I swam in the Styx to become invulnerable so that I could defeat Kronos whose host body had done the same. And, as for escaping Hades Palace…”
Percy rubbed the back of his neck. “Nico tricked me into talking to Hades before taking me to the Styx so that he could find out information on his family and past. He knew almost nothing because right before they were put in the Lotus Hotel, they were dipped in the Lethe.”
“Wait, the Lethe? Isn’t that the one that erases your memories before rebirth?”
“Yeah, powerful stuff. Your sister, me, and Nico once defeated a Titan by tricking it into falling in.”
“WHAT?!?!?!”
“Again, not important. The point is that Hades tricked Nico into tricking me because while he just said that he wanted to talk, he was actually going to lock me in a dungeon until Nico could become the child of the prophecy. Which is stupid now that I think about it because you would have turned 16 before Nico did.”
Jason’s head was reeling, but he managed to say: “Maybe Roman gods didn’t count.”
“Maybe… Anyway, Nico helped me escape, I became invulnerable, and then, towards the end of the Battle of Manhattan, Nico convinced Hades to fight alongside us and helped to defeat the monsters around the Empire State Building.
He stayed at camp for about two months before he started slipping off for quests for his father. I guess, he was actually going to New Rome. According to Annabeth, he stopped coming to camp for more than a couple of hours after I went missing.
He was under the guise of looking for me, but I kinda wonder if there was something else that was keeping him away. I doubt he liked me all that much.
He saw me when I was in New Rome, right before the Alaska quest. Part of me is kinda peeved that he didn’t tell me who I was, the bigger part just wants to make sure that he’s safe.”
Jason thought that over for a bit, here was this kid who manipulated Percy for information, seemed to spend more time with the living than the dead, and for whatever reason could never seem to find a home at camp.
Jason didn’t think he trusted a guy who sounded like that, but he guessed he trusted Percy enough to give him the benefit to the doubt.
“Okay,” Jason said. “I’ll help you guys save him. But tell me honestly, why do you want to save him so badly?”
Percy frowned again. “Because even after everything that has happened between us and even if he hates me for everything that has ever gone wrong between us, I still care about him and he’s my friend. He’s also just a kid who sure as Hades doesn’t deserve to survive Tartarus only to suffocate in a jar for the sick satisfaction of two giants. After all the crap I’ve put up with since I was 12, I know who my friends are, and I know that if not for them I wouldn’t be where I am today. Does that answer your question?”
Jason just nodded and saw that it was best if he just leaves. Jason may not trust Nico yet, but at least he knows a little more about him. Right?