Chapter Text
Jason woke up to streaks of lightning flashing inside cabin one. His blinks were slow as he took in the otherwise dark room, but his heart raced.
Did thunder wake him up? That didn’t seem right since he was a heavy sleeper. Speaking of heavy, Jason felt like weights had been placed on top of his body. He sat up to try and shake off the feeling.
That was when Jason realized he had a guest.
In one smooth motion, Jason swiped his imperial gold sword from its resting spot by his bed, and got in a crouching position. He didn’t want to strike yet, but their presence made his skin crawl. The room lightened as if the moon poked its head out from behind storm clouds.
“I come in peace, little demigod,” said the figure as they raised their hands in submission. The sleeves rolled back to show off even more skin that was as dark as a crow’s feather.
“Identify yourself,” Jason tried to sound commanding, but his voice was scratchy from sleep, so he sounded like he needed a nap. Great.
“I am someone in need of your help. I am Ouranos,” he tilted his head and considered Jason with a cursory up-and-down glance. “Or Uranus, if that name suits you more.”
The thunder in his ceiling cracked and banged louder. If this guy was Ouranos, then he wasn’t well-known for being nice. This guy hated his kids so much he threw them into Tartarus.
Plus, last time Jason met a primordial being, she tried to destroy all life.
Jason wondered if he could take this guy if needed. If he had to be honest, probably not. Gaea needed an entire team of fate-picked demigods; there was a good chance he was just as tough. Jason would hold him off if needed though. There was no way he’d let Camp half-Blood get devastated again.
He was going to have to see what Ouranos wanted. Jason’s knuckles shone bone white as he tightened his grip on his sword.
“Why have you come here for my help?”
“You are a child of the sky. I thought it natural,” Ouranos tilted his dark face again. Freckles shone like diamonds over the bridge of his nose. “And I am in dire need. That is what we immortals do, is it not? Ask little demigods for help?”
“What do you need help with?”
“My ungrateful son sliced me into many pieces, and I have spent eons recuperating. Sleeping,” his ink black eyes surveyed the cabin ceiling. Jason remembered that story. Kronos had sliced his father up as his other Titan siblings held Ouranos down. Gaea, their mother, had given Kronos the scythe. After that, well, there wasn’t anything after that. Ouranos was never mentioned again. “My beloved... She woke recently. You met her, did you not? I heard you played a hand in putting her back to sleep.”
“I did.”
“I am not happy to hear that demigods stopped her, and I wish I had been awake to see her again,” he admitted. “But, the time to greet her has passed. I lost my chance this time around.”
“My condolences,” Jason tried to keep a placating tone, but the spite was brittle in his throat. “So what do you need help with? If it’s raising her again, I’m going to have to decline.”
“You misunderstand me, little demigod. I wish no harm to you or your little friends. I come here seeking the solace of sleep like you have given my beloved.”
“You... Want me to put you back asleep?”
“Yes. I would prefer it sooner rather than later. My power grows to its maximum with every passing second. The Olympians will step in to try unnecessary and painful means to put me to sleep, and I would rather go quietly.”
“Why would the Olympians step in?”
Ouranos flicked his dark eyes up to the ceiling as it rumbled and flashed. His chapped lips made a thin smirk.
“The greatest fear of Olympus is a change in power. I once ruled as the Olympians do. Like my beloved and my ungrateful son did. Why would they not step in?”
He had a point, Jason conceded, but that didn’t mean he was going to trust Ouranos. The problem was that he couldn’t deny Ouranos either. Putting him to sleep sounded like a good thing. Jason was trying to think of how this was a ploy to destroy everything, but Jason drew a blank. He wished he was even half as smart as Annabeth. Maybe then he could figure out how Ouranos was trying to trick him.
“Call a quest, little demigod. Get your guide to tell you where to go. Help me, and I will sleep in peace and you can avoid a potential crisis.”
Ouranos dispersed into mist. The cabin’s ceiling continued to rumble and flash with lightning. Jason wondered if that was his dad’s way of telling him to do something.
He had to do it, didn’t he? Jason couldn’t let Ouranos, who was notorious for being more cruel than Gaea, walk free. He was offering to go down quietly, and Jason had to make sure that happened.
In the morning, he thought to himself as he put his sword down and slumped back on his bed. I’ll call for a quest in the morning.
Jason drifted off to sleep hoping for pleasant dreams. As a demigod, that was pretty laughable, but Jason liked to remain optimistic about these sorts of things. It was the only line of defense he had at the wrath of his subconscious.
Jason dreamed he was on a picnic with Leo and Piper. They were smiling and laughing. Seeing them so happy made Jason smile too.
The sun was bright. Really, bright, actually. The water from Camp Half-Blood’s lake reflected so much light Jason had to squint to see. It didn’t help that he felt like either he had taken a swim or he was just sweating that bad.
“!” Weird. Jason opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He just wanted to ask them if they wanted to go sit in the shade, but Piper and Leo continued to laugh and talk like he wasn’t there. Jason’s smile fell.
He heard a crunch of dead leaves on the ground. Jason turned around to see Reyna standing in the shade of the trees. Her eyes hardened as she stared at the horizon.
Jason tried to remember the last time he talked to her. He used to talk to Reyna every day whether it was early in the morning during a jog or hushed over campfire in the dead of night. They had a few good talks when Gaea went down, but now he was lucky to get a “hello” in.
She glanced at Jason, her face tired and hurt, before turning and disappearing into the forest.
“!” Jason tried again, and immediately took off after her. A few moments later, he was deep in the forest.
“!!!” Jason’s throat felt like a grater shredded it. He pushed his way past branches as the sky got darker and the warmth of the sun turned to frigid ice and whistling winds.
Jason wasn’t in Camp Half-Blood’s woods anymore. Or maybe he was, and the Wolf House magically transported itself here. Jason was all alone at the Wolf House’s doorstep. A lemony scent breezed by him, and the smell made his eyes well up.
That was when Jason noticed a lone figure walking away from the Wolf House.
“?” Jason tried running after them, and the dead leaves crunched under his shoes. If his voice couldn’t reach them, then maybe he could at least try to get their attention. As Jason got closer, he recognized the messy mop of black hair and aviator jacket. That was definitely Nico di Angelo walking away from him.
He hadn’t seen Nico in months; the guy kept his promise about disappearing. Seeing him now was like a surge of joy and Jason ran faster.
“!” The moment Jason reached out to touch Nico’s shoulder, he was back at the lakeside where he had been having a picnic with Piper and Leo. It was pitch black, and the trees behind him melted into darkness.
Ouranos sat where his friends had been.
“Do not fail me, little demigod,” the sombre tone of Ouranos felt like a lightning strike aimed straight at Jason’s heart. “Do not fail me like you have failed your friends.”
That was when Jason woke up. His body was slick with sweat, and his breaths came out ragged. He was crying, too. Great.
Jason’s body groaned as he sat up and wiped his eyes. The ceiling was bright with morning sun, but storm clouds lingered. Eventually, Jason just settled for holding his head up with his hands. He wanted to make sure he shook off the remnants of his dream before he started what would probably be a big day.
Knock knock knock
Jason jumped at the sound. He snatched his bedsheets lightning quick to make himself decent for a visitor, but it was Piper that poked her head inside.
“Hey, sleepyhead, are you awake yet?”
“I, uh?” Jason garbled out. Nice. Real smooth.
Piper walked in dressed for the day with her Camp Half-Blood t-shirt half tucked into her high waisted shorts. Jason guessed it was chilly out since she wore black stockings under her shorts. She had twin fat braids pulling hair back into a ponytail. With so much hair pulled back, Jason saw her face with dazzling clarity. The smile that tugged on her plump lips fell as she approached him.
“Something wrong?”
“Uh, just a dream,” Jason rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. Maybe if he dug in deep enough he could claw out his headache.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Piper sat down next to him and placed a kiss to his bare shoulder. Jason remembered how dream Piper didn’t even notice him, but here the real Piper sat with concern filling her face.
“No, it’s nothing major. I have more important things to concentrate on,” Jason furrowed his eyebrows. “I need to gather the head counselors and call for a quest.”
“A quest?” Piper leaned forward to get a good look at Jason. Her kaleidoscope eyes were mesmerizing up close. “What happened?”
“I’ll explain at the meeting. Can you help me gather everyone?”
“Sure,” Piper nodded. “Although you should shower first. And get dressed. And eat. Which should give everyone enough time to get here for whatever bad news you’re probably going to tell us.”
Jason groaned and ran a hand through his hair.
“I’ll be ready in an hour.”
Meeting around ping pong tables was new for Jason, but the snacks and juice were a nice change. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to enjoy them once the meeting started. Jason folded his hands in front of him so he wouldn’t look as nervous as he felt and recounted his midnight chat. His head ached as everyone stared him down for information.
“And that’s all he told me,” Jason finished.
“I can’t believe this,” Annabeth Chase ran her fingers through her thick curly blonde hair. “I thought we were done after Gaea, but I guess not.”
“This isn’t the next big prophecy, is it?” asked Percy Jackson. He sat next to Annabeth and had an arm hoisted on the back of her chair.
“No,” Rachel Elizabeth Dare answered. Her green eyes scrunched up as she tapped fingers against the tabletop. “At least, it doesn’t feel like it.”
“What, not getting good prophecy-sensing reception in here?” Leo Valdez quipped without looking up from his current project. It was some sort of palm pilot with its mechanical guts sticking out. Despite the comment, Leo seemed dazed and completely out of his usual fire.
“The ways of the oracle aren’t all that straightforward,” Rachel rolled her eyes. “But I am at least ninety-five percent sure it’s not the next big prophecy.”
“Sounds good enough to me,” shrugged Percy.
Murmurs rippled through the congregated demigods. Instead of senators, it was camp counselors. All of the camp counselors weren’t here since it was short notice during the school season, but a decent amount made it. For all the differences Camp Half-Blood had with Camp Jupiter, this was oddly familiar.
“So, let’s call a quest,” said Piper. She was on Jason’s other side and had a hand on his thigh. It was a nice solid comfort after a hectic night.
“I don’t think we should rush into this,” said Annabeth. “I feel like there’s some sort of drawback. I mean, how often do immortal beings come for help and have 100% pure intentions. No offense,” she directed that last one to Dion- well, Mr. D, as they called him.
“None taken,” he shrugged.
“While I agree we should tread carefully,” interjected Chiron. “Ouranos was right. Olympus will reach out for something to be done sooner or later.”
Chiron glanced at Mr. D who seemed to be feigning apathy. Or maybe he was actually apathetic. Jason hadn’t known the god for long. His first five months at Camp Half-Blood didn’t have its resident godly baby-sitter around.
“So, you’re saying we have to take a quest to help him?” said Will Solace. His deft fingers tapped against the ping pong table.
“No, he’s saying Grace has to take a quest to help him,” Clarisse La Rue snorted. “I’m right, aren’t I? Superboy gets to lead another quest and he hasn’t even been here a full year.”
“I didn’t choose the quests I’ve been on. You know that’s not how it works,” Jason defended. He wish he didn’t have to, though. The thought of leading another quest so soon left his stomach knotted like he’d had a bad breakfast.
Clarisse glared as she sipped capri sun. “Whatever.”
“We should just get a prophecy and go from there,” said Percy. His eyebrows knitted together like something was bothering him, but he turned to Rachel. “Feel anything... Green mist-y and a little terrifying trying to possess your body?”
“Not yet,” Rachel said as she closed her eyes.
“Should we alert Camp Jupiter about this?” asked Piper.
“There’s nothing they can do about it,” said Pollux, the only camper in the Dionysus cabin. “But, they’d probably want to know anyway, wouldn’t they?”
Everyone turned to Jason. Right. He’s the roman of the group even if he didn’t feel all that roman. He wished they would look to Percy; he’s been to Camp Jupiter more in the past four months than Jason has.
“We barely made amends after Gaea’s defeat, so anything to disrupt the peace would be bad. If this turns ugly, we’d want them to have a heads up.”
“I’m going to meet with the Praetors of Camp Jupiter tomorrow anyway,” said Percy. “So I can tell them all the details.”
“You have a meeting with them? What for?” Jason quirked an eyebrow at Percy who shrugged in response.
“We’re just talking over some stuff. It’s no biggie.”
“And it’s not what we’re meeting about now, so can we get back on topic?” Clarisse grunted. “I don’t have all day.”
“We can’t decide who’s going on a quest until after we hear a prophecy,” Annabeth pointed out. She turned to Rachel and her features got softer. “Do you feel anything yet, Rach’?”
“I think I,” Rachel snapped her lips together and went rigid. Annabeth immediately reached out to support her as Rachel’s eyes began to glow with a pale green light. Green smoke curled around everyone. Soon Jason could only see Rachel’s rigid form amongst the smoke clouds staring straight at him. Great, so he was definitely leading this quest.
When Rachel began to speak, her voice was raspy:
Beware the traitor and the darkest night,
Lyre reborn can solve the sky's plight.
Your trail grows cold without hunter's hands,
In the new world is where the relic stands.
You will fail both your labors and your friends,
And gain what you wanted most in the end.
Jason felt his breath stutter as the mist cleared. Rachel slumped back, and Annabeth cradled her. The pale green glowing light was gone as Rachel blinked into consciousness.
The room was silent.
“So, that didn’t sound good,” said Travis Stoll.
“Not at all,” his brother, Conner, agreed.
“When do prophecies ever sound good?” Jason found his voice somehow, but he felt like smoke ashes coated his lips.
“Almost never,” Piper squeezed his thigh. Right. Jason took in a deep breath to try and calm down, but the words of the prophecy repeated in his mind. “Beware the traitor and the darkest night” sounded bad enough, but “You will fail both your labors and your friends” was what made Jason even queasier than before. His headache continued to pound against his skull.
“So, I guess I have to pick two people to go with me.”
No one immediately volunteered. Jason couldn’t blame them.
“We should figure out where you’re headed first,” Annabeth started after a few moments of silence. “Sometimes having certain abilities help quests succeed.”
“‘Lyre reborn can solve the sky's plight’,” recited Pollux. “Well, I guess you need to find a lyre to put him to sleep... Maybe you’ll have to sing Ouranos a lullaby?”
“My father has a lyre,” said Will Solace in a gloomy voice. “But, last I heard, he wasn’t interested in loaning it out. Apparently, the last time he lent it to a half-blood, they dented it.”
Jason’s eyebrows raised at that. He wondered what kind of irresponsible demigod would damage a god’s personal property.
“That’s still a good lead,” said Piper. “We can ask him anyway.”
“He’s not going to lend it out, trust me.”
“If nothing else, I can try charmspeaking him into letting us borrow it.”
“Is that a volunteer from the beauty queen?” Conner Stoll waggled his eyebrows at Piper.
“Probably,” Piper shrugged and ignored his blatant flirting. “I mean, I'm not opposed to going.” Piper smiled at Jason, and Jason tried to muster up a smile back but it fell flat. He knew that she was an extremely powerful and capable demigod, but that wasn’t the issue. The “You will fail both your labors and your friends” line echoed in his mind. He didn’t want to fail Piper.
“Apollo does make a little sense if the hunters in the prophecy line refers to the Hunters of Artemis. Artemis and Apollo find each other the easiest,” offered Will Solace. “But I still doubt he’ll let you borrow his lyre.”
Jason hoped the hunters bit was true. Thalia had taught him a way to find the hunters if he ever needed her in the aftermath of Gaea’s defeat. It would be good to see his sister again.
“I don’t think Apollo’s lyre is the one the prophecy is talking about,” Annabeth leaned forward and bit her lip. “‘Lyre reborn’ is the wording. Was anyone else known for... Oh, Orpheus.”
“What about him?” Pollux opened a cracker bag for a snack. “Wasn’t he known for trying to bring his wife back from the underworld and failing?”
“He was a musician, too,” Will Solace nodded towards Annabeth. “Apollo gifted him a golden lyre and taught him to play. He used that lyre to do... All sorts of things.”
“He helped Jason get past the Sirens,” said Piper. “I mean, the other Jason. The ancient leader of the argonauts Jason.”
“What happened to his lyre?” asked Percy as he squinted at his own half-finished capri sun. “Did he get buried with it or something?”
“No,” said Will Solace. “The lyre was carried to the heavens and placed among the stars.”
“Oh,” said Percy in a quiet voice.
“That doesn’t help us,” said Travis Stoll.
“If it was reborn it does,” said Annabeth.
“Why don’t we just send him to Tartarus?” Lou Ellen, the Hecate counselor, gestured to everyone with wide open arms. “I mean, do we really need a big quest and prophecy to get rid of him? Just slash him apart.”
“He probably won’t like that idea. Gaea dumped him for Tartarus,” Annabeth pointed out. “Nothing worse than being forced to hang around your ex’s boyfriend.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” snorted Leo.
“Okay, so we have two maybe lyre options,” Clarisse grunted. “And we’ve got one person on the ‘maybe’ list of going with superboy,” Clarisse pointed her capri sun at Piper. “Can we make some final decisions here?”
“I don’t see you helping or offering to go on this quest,” countered Travis.
“I don’t see you doing it either,” said Clarisse. “And for the record, I haven’t offered my services because the PSATs are next week and I don’t want to miss it.”
Travis looked at her like she had grown a second head.
“What? Just because I can conquer an entire army by myself doesn’t mean I’m not going to try to conquer standardized testing too. I want to crush everyone’s SAT scores. Especially Jackson’s, but that shouldn’t be too hard,” she sneered at Percy who grunted in response. Annabeth gave him a consoling pat.
“Well, in any case,” Annabeth interjected before they could get sidetracked for too long. “The final decision of who goes is Jason’s to make.”
Jason pushed his nausea down to think this through as everyone turned their eyes to him.
“Beware the traitor and the darkest night” was how the prophecy kicked off. Was Ouranos a traitor? It seemed likely given his history, but Jason's learned that he shouldn’t jump to conclusions. The darkest night didn’t sound good either.
The scene of his dream where Ouranos sat in darkness played in his mind.
“Do not fail me like you have failed your friends.”
A shiver ran down Jason’s spine. According to the prophecy, he was going to fail.
If failure wasn’t aggravating enough, then there was the last line of the prophecy: “And gain what you wanted most in the end.” How could he fail his friends and gain what he wanted most at the same time? All Jason wanted was for his friends to be happy, healthy, and safe. He looked at Leo, who had been suspiciously quiet the entire meeting. On his other side, Piper gave him an expectant look that mirrored everyone else’s as they stared him down.
Then he thought of Reyna, and how tattered their friendship had become. She was far away at Camp Jupiter; a true roman leader unlike him. Then there was his nonexistent friendship with Nico. Jason knew he couldn’t force the guy to do anything, but the radio silence fell heavy on his chest. For all his big talk about wanting to help Nico, he failed stupendously to do anything.
Jason needed to do something, and he refused to fail even if that’s what some stupid prophecy said.
“I will take Piper Mclean and Nico di Angelo with me on this quest. We’ll leave at noon.”
“Fair enough,” said Mr. D. “Have fun horribly dying. A game of Phase 10, anyone?”
“Uh, wait,” said Annabeth. “Jason, we don’t know where Nico is. You of all people should know that. We haven’t seen him in months.”
“And we can’t IM him either,” said Percy. “Dunno why, but Iris won’t connect the call every time we’ve tried.”
“I have a way,” said Jason. Well, he did. He just had no idea if it was going to work. It was a contingency plan in case something bad happened. Jason figured Ouranos popping up qualified. “Don’t worry. I’ll get him here.”
“If you think that’s the best,” Piper smiled and reached out to squeeze his hand this time. He squeezed back.
They volleyed a few more remarks before the meeting adjourned. Some people had classes to go to, and others had work. Leo didn’t stick around long and immediately hi-tailed it out of there. Jason made a mental note to talk to him before he left for the quest.
Jason got up and walked out to the Big House’s patio holding Piper’s hand. A cool breeze passed by, and Jason felt his headache dulling.
“So, Nico, huh?” Piper started. Jason stopped them on the porch as Will Solace rushed by to get back to teaching archery classes.
“No matter what lyre we're going after, we’re going to need to find Apollo to get information about either. Nico’s shadow travel will be useful.”
“You’ve got a plan all worked out?”
“Yup,” Jason smiled as he spotted Percy making his way towards the arena. “And it starts out with a favor.”