Chapter Text
Jason shifted on his feet, trying to settle into a more comfortable position and attempting to banish away the faint ache travelling through his legs and feet. The night was uncomfortably still, cool enough to make the skin of Jason’s hands and face feel frozen and unmovable, and the overbearing sounds of San Jose making his ears ring. Jason disliked the sounds of mortal cities, vastly different from his home and New Rome, ambulance sirens and the milling of thousands of humans making his skin crawl. His watch was not finished for another hour yet, and he longed for a few hours of peace in sleep, to regain the energy he had lost through the day fighting through the monsters which seemed to chase them through the city. Jason suspected the blood-lust the monsters were seemingly filled with was only fueled further by the rumours of an army gathering. An army of what, led by who, and for what reason was not information Jason was privy to. It scraped against his pride to be in the dark about something that could endanger New Rome and Camp Jupiter. Still, he understood, as a low-ranking Legionnaire, he was nowhere near the level of respect that would allow him to be aware of the inner workings of the army and her enemies. Jason was to follow orders, and not question them, at least until he had proved himself. ‘ Which’ he thought, shifting his spear from hand to hand, keeping his mind awake, ‘ If this quest goes better from this point, I will’.
Jason had just turned 12 a few weeks ago, according to Lupa, and as such, had come of age to be eligible to go on quests. It rankled him, that he had to wait to prove himself when Jason had trained his whole life for this exact reason, but he was not one to question his superiors. He knew better.
The door to their motel room creaked open, and Jason felt a shock go up his spine, straightened up and held his spear to attention, eyes locked on the balcony opposite them, his breath held. “Hey, little man,” his questmate, a demigod boy, two or three years older than him, said, his voice pitched so low Jason had to strain to hear him over the sound of mortal teenagers drinking under them. “Just wanted to check how you were holding up. Any trouble?”.
Jason flicked his gaze over to him, seeing the other boy half-hanging out of their room, body leaning heavily against the door. Jason unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth, “No, Legionnaire, nothing to report, how goes the Auspex’s readings?”. The boy blinked at him, looking down at him slightly.
“Uh…Good? I guess, Octavian’s pretty sure he knows where we need to go, and we’ll be out at first light,” he looked dismayed as he said first light , which confused Jason. The morning was best, with dawn leaving little places for a beast to hide and surprise them. The Legionnaire half-smiled, dark curls lit from behind by the lamp shining from inside the room, “Which, was not my idea, by the way, the little prince demands we have to be on the road by the time dawn hits,” he told Jason, sounding like he was trying to share a joke of some kind with him. Jason didn’t understand, but he returned his smile. He did not want to appear unknowledgeable to the boy.
“Understood, Legionnaire,” he said, shifting back into his previous stance which he fell out of during the conversation, his eyes drifting back to the opposite balcony, trying to burrow back into the flimsy jacket he had been given by Priestess Mikaela.
The boy, suddenly, cursed under his breath, in English which meant it sounded unfamiliar and foreign to Jason, he only knew a few curses that weren't in Latin, and had only picked up a few so far, and disappeared back into his room, the door still cracked open. Jason shot a queer look back over to the space he had vacated, hand tightening on the bronze of his spear in case he had spotted something that Jason had missed. “Legionnaire,” he called, hair rising on the back of his neck, trying to sense the danger he could not see, an invisible energy coursing through his body-
“It’s cool! We’re cool!” the Legionnaire called back, “Just- hold up a sec, kid!”
Jason furrowed his brows in confusion, unsure of what the other boy was attempting to do. Perhaps something had happened with the Auspex?
The Legionnaire suddenly reappeared at the door, pushing it open more fully, allowing some heat to escape the room and curl around Jason, even just for a moment, holding a steaming cup of…something in his hands. “Made one for myself, thought you might appreciate something to keep you warm out here while on watch,” the Legionnaire said, holding the paper cup out for Jason to take. It steamed in the cool air and Jason obediently took it, holding his spear in the crook of his elbow to take the cup with both hands. He was right, it warmed his hands immensely, and Jason attempted to give him one of his more docile smiles, something Priestess Mikaela had said was less a sign of violence among people and more a sign of thanks. Jason found it unnerving to show his teeth unless he was engaged in battle, but others took it as something more peaceful.
“Taste it, let me know if you need sugar, I usually take it with like, 5 packets but Mom says my sweet tooth isn’t something everyone has,” the Legionnaire joked, watching expectantly. Jason raised the cup, filled with a light brown liquid to his mouth, and obediently took a sip. It was warm, just sweet enough, as well as soothingly rich. It was…nice.
“I’ve had this before,” he said, almost on instinct, surprised with himself. He had drunk this before, just once, when he had first visited the Temple of Vesta, and one of the initiates there had given a similar enough drink to this. “ Grātiās maximās tibi agō , Legionnaire”.
The Legionnaire smiled, more fully this time, showing a missing front tooth. “No prob, little guy, I’ll see you in-”
“Dakota!”
They both startled, Jason, dropping his cup, griped his spear again, eyes roaming the complex. The Legionnaire, Dakota, ran back into the room, with the Auspex, both voices raised as a flurried conversation took place. Jason moved in front of the door, raising his spear in front of himself, ears pricked for the slightest of sounds, trying to remove the mortals droning and chatter from any possible noise of danger.
He felt the noise of one of his comrades moving to be behind him, a hand gripping his upper bicep. “Wolf-child,” the Auspex hissed, his words garbled by the strange metal contraption attached to his teeth. Jason wondered, hoped almost, if it was there to keep the Auspex from talking so much. “Something is coming, be prepared. I do not know if it is a friend or foe, but judging by your luck, it will be a foe, come to tear us apart”
Jason frowned. He knew his presence under Mother had been considered by some to be an ill-omen, but Jason was above petty rumours. He was Mother’s new sword to carve out a new, and more powerful, New Rome, and he would not be dragged down by-
“Is it not your job to know if it is friend or foe, Auspex? Mayhaps your bird guts should be examined more dutifully if we are to know if we are about to be attacked-” he spat, his anger at the jab getting the better of him. His cheeks coloured slightly, eyes still fixed on the night sky and balcony outside, waiting for what would be an inevitable attack. The grip tightened on his arm, and Jason bit down on the urge to shake off the Auspex.
“You dare-” he hissed, fingernails digging into soft skin.
“Boys!” Dakota shouts, “Get ready for evil monsters, argue later!”
The Auspex removed his hand with a hmph, pushing Jason slightly. He threw a frown back at the blond-haired Auspex. Unworthy, a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Mother hissed.
The three of them took up posts around the room. Dakota at the window, Jason at the door, and the Auspex in the middle, the weakest of the three. They waited with bated breath, flinching at every raised voice and muted crash of glass against concrete. He could hear the soft, wet sound of the Auspex running his hands through the guts of the pigeon he had captured for a reading, trying to find out something more concrete before they were all caught off-guard by a Hellhound or a group of vicious harpies.
“Down,” the Auspex whispered, his nasal voice hazy and dreamlike, as loud as a cracking whip in the quiet anticipation of the room. “Go down”
“Down?” Dakota muttered, “Like, downstairs? Jason, go, I’ll follow with Octavian, try and scout out…whatever it is that’s got Octavian’s attention”.
Jason nodded his assent, before moving out of the room, exiting back into the cool air, his grip on his spear tightening. Sweat made his palms slick, and every hair on his body raised as he expected a monster around every corner. He slipped slowly down the metal grate stairs, already crouched in preparation to launch himself at the creature surely waiting for him below the balcony. The motel’s grimy pool reflected the artificial lights of the building, leaves and refuse floating on its surface. His eyes darted from corner to corner, straining to see even the slightest of movements in the shadows. The noise from the mortal teenagers were louder now, a group of them seemingly crowded around the opposite edge of the pool, laughing and shouting. There were about a dozen of them, their backs turned to him. He grimaced. Their presence would make this much harder if they were forced to fight. Mortals were blind, unable to see their fights as anything but the lies the Shroud showed them to protect their false understanding of the word. Jason found them confusing and strange and preferred to keep them at arm's length if possible.
Their jeering grew louder suddenly, and Jason blocked them out, seeing nothing that would present danger. He huffed, straightening up, his frustration at this creature which refused to just show itself and get this all over with.
“Oh, shit, it’s another kid!” one of the mortals said suddenly and Jason cursed in Latin under his breath. Another tiring thing about mortals was their inability to leave Jason alone due to his age, he was a Legionnaire in the 12th Legion, for the sake of the Gods! Not some child for them to bother with useless, pointless questions.
“Hey, hey, hey kid! C’mere a minute, c’mere!” a mortal teenager called to him, a tall mortal with fair skin and bright eyes. He wore little more than a pair of cargo shorts and a hat, turned backwards on his hair. He waved a hand over, like Jason was little more than some stray kit. “C’mon! We just- just wanna ask you,” he broke into laughter suddenly, and the group followed, some almost doubling over. Jason did not see what was funny. “Just wanna ask you a question, c’mon!”
Jason warily walked over, attempting to see if this group were actually Empousia in disguise. They smelt mortal, and Jason could not see the faint shimmer of Shroud Mother had taught him to look for, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Some of the mortals were lounging on long, oddly shaped chairs, almost like a chaise longue some officials in New Rome favoured in their homes, drinking from unfamiliar cans. They smelt like a brewery, and Jason’s nose wrinkled in disgust.
“What,” he scraped out, not planning on entertaining these mortals longer than he had to.
The shirtless mortal, the one who spoke to him, was ruddy-faced and his eyes were unfocused. Jason had heard of drunkenness from older Legionnaires, but if this was the outcome, why would anyone in a sane state of mind choose to do this to themself?
“Just, c’mon little dude, stop glaring, Christ, you look like my dad, just a mini-dad- that’s- weird, little dude, c’mere, just-” the mortal beckoned him closer, lowering himself slowly onto his haunches. Jason wandered closer, still clenching his spear, until he was close enough to see into the circle the mortal teenagers had created. The mortals were all in various stages of undress, all drinking, some clinging onto each other as they sat on the chairs. “You know this kid, hey, seriously, you know him?”
The mortal pointed into the centre of their circle at a lump of- something. “What are you talking about?” Jason growled, growing suddenly very tired of these hapless mortals and their games.
The mortal rolled his bloodshot eyes and his hand pushed at Jason’s shoulder, putting Jason off balance and further into their circle. A few shots of laughter rang out as Jason stumbled, and he righted himself, now closer to the lump. These truly were just mortals, annoying as that was. A monster would have attacked by now.
“Dude,” another mortal groaned, sitting on a chair with a girl on his lap, “Do you know him? Just tell us!”
Jason frowned, his stomach roiling with a sudden uncomfortableness. He crouched down, using his hand instead of his spear so as not to draw their attention to it, pushing at the mound.
It groaned with a human sound of pain. Jason blinked in surprise, blue eyes wide now. It was a person. He used his free hand to roll the person onto their back, now seeing their legs poking out from beneath what he thought might be an overly-large jacket. A face his own age looked back at him.
“Well,” the original mortal called, “you know the little-? Tried to- tried to- rob us, but we caught him, got him no problem, gave him a little of his own medicine, right Con?”
A bark of laughter rang out, followed by the mortals jeering and laughing, spilling drink all over themselves.
The boy blinked back at him.
Jason’s breath lifted itself from his lungs, leaving him empty and lost. He knew, deep in his own heart and mind, like he knew how to breathe, how to walk, how to hunt and run and swing a blade until it drew blood, that this was a face he was not meant to see. Not now, the winds whispered, not yet.
Still, the boy stayed staring at him, trapped in the same trance as Jason.
Was this how Psyche felt? Staring at a face she was forbidden to see?
“Hi,” the boy whispered, his cut and bruised lip making even the smallest of greetings sound garbled and harsh. His face was bruised, not just his lip, mottled bruised making its way up the right side of his face, blood colouring one half of his iris. They had beaten him, for stealing and Jason knew, like he knew north from south, that he would not allow for him to be punished further.
“Get up,” he whispered, slipping his spear back into its sheath on his back, “I will help, we must move”
The boy’s face twisted in confusion, but he pushed himself up into a sitting position, pain flittering across his face. The boy cursed in English, “God, that hurts-” he cursed again, more directed at the mortals around them. Jason slid an arm under his arms, helping him up, until he was on unsteady legs, like a foal. The boy was dark-skinned, with long, tight curls that fell just below his chin, failing into dark brown eyes. He leant his weight half on Jason, an arm thrown over his shoulders.
“Wait!” the mortal called, “You do know him- man your friend tried to take my goddamn food! What the fuck?”
Jason bared his teeth. “I do not know him, but he is hurt, we are leaving” and he attempted to walk through the group, the boy stumbling slightly, wincing as he attempted to walk. Possibly a broken or twisted ankle.
The mortal cursed, throwing his can down, and made a grab at the boy Jason was helping. Before Jason could throw down the boy and attempt to fight the mortals bare-knuckled as his spear would do little to nothing against them, Dakota came scrambling into the scene.
“Hey, hey, man keep your hands to yourself,” Dakota rushed out, an easy smile on his face, “Me and my brother just wanna get the kid some help, no biggie right? He looks pretty beat up, just want to make sure the poor kid doesn’t bleed out or somethin’. We’re cool,” and the mortals, who all were sitting up straight, some even standing now, relaxed at Dakota’s words, melting back into their original places. Jason dragged the boy further away, listening to him groan in pain. Dakota said some more words and Jason knew he was using some aspect of his godly parent’s power, but Jason didn’t know who they were so he was clueless as to how he was subduing the mortals.
Jason dragged the boy towards the Auspex, who was sitting outside the motel’s reception building with their supplies. The Auspex raised his fair eyebrows at him, metal glinting in the streetlights as he grimaced. “Is that what you found, truly, child? A beaten boy? This quest has been nothing but disappointment, it seems”
Jason carefully dropped the boy onto the pavement, letting him sit against the wall of the motel. “It was your haruspex that lead us here, and to him, it seems, Oracle ,” he hissed “so this quest’s direction and outcome lays on your shoulders”.
“Shut your mouth, you misbegotten cursed thing, the Wolf Mother should have eaten you as a babe”
Jason was sure there were plenty of other Auspex’s to go around, surely one would not be missed if he tore this one’s throat out with his teeth.
“Hey, thanks for the save back there NSYNC, but if you guys could just give me a lift to the nearest free clinic and leave me out of whatever Renaissance Faire shit you guys have got going on, I’d be really pleased,” the boy suddenly said, interrupting Jason and the Auspex. Jason turned his gaze on the boy, who was curled around his midsection, looking at the both of them like they were crazed fauns.
The Auspex sighed, like this boy was an affront to all things holy within the Temples, and rolled his eyes, “Be quiet, it seems fate has favoured you tonight and my readings have decided you’re needed, for whatever reason, so you will stay until we have decided what to do with you”
The boy jerked, “Man, whatever you’re smoking, keep it away from me, what the hell are you talking about-”
Jason leant down to inspect the boy’s wounds, taking in his bedraggled appearance, like he had spent some time in a bush, and his overly large clothing. Possibly hurt ribs by the way he held his chest, maybe even a concussion with the bruises on his face, not to mention his ankle. He gripped the boy's calf to inspect his left ankle, using his hand to inspect the swelling through several thick socks. He would have to remove the boy’s boot to get a closer understanding-
Jason felt the leg jerk as the boy attempted to wriggle out of his grasp. “Man, what the fuck! Get this spear-wielding weirdo away from me, dude get off me!” he cried, wriggling like a fish as he tried to move away from Jason’s grasp.
“Jason!” Dakota reprimanded, “Don’t touch people without asking! C’mon, sorry about that kid, he’s got…social issues”
Jason tightened his grip on the boy’s calf, staring into his eyes, wide in fear and confusion, his breath coming in pants.
Spear-wielding.
The Auspex, for all his faults, seemed to catch on. “You can see his spear?” he asked as he climbed closer to the boy, grabbing his face in his hands.
The boy spluttered, now trying to wriggle away from both Jason and the Auspex. “What the fuck? Of course, I can! It’s a spear, everyone can see that!”
Dakota caught Jason’s eyes, understanding passing between the two of them. “No, actually,” Dakota started, voice soft and friendly, “they can’t. My name’s Dakota, this here is Jason,” he pointed at him, “and that is Octavian, boys let him go”. Jason relented, carefully dropping his leg, while the Auspex grumbled, but let go of the boy’s face. His breathing still seemed quick, but Dakota smiled at him, crouching down. “How ‘bout you? You got a name?”
The boy’s dark eyes darted between the three of them, eyes lingering on Jason long enough to make the sense of…wrongness return. The feeling that Jason was wandering into somewhere he should not be, like the inner Temple of the Vesta Priestesses.
“Leo,” the boy said, at last, eyes wandering back to Dakota.
Leo.
“Well, Leo,” Dakota said, a bright smile cracking his features, “how about we get those injuries of yours sorted, and we can talk some more, you cool with that?”
Leo kept his eyes on Dakota but Jason could feel that heavy gaze on him still. He did not understand. This is not fate, the winds told him, leave him behind the pigeon guts in their abandoned motel room called, it is not the time , the stars spoke, tear the heart from his chest and leave us all in darkness the earth whispered.
“Sure, why not,” Leo said, trying to grin around his swollen and bloodied lip, and Jason swore he saw the end of all things when they helped Leo into the SVU Camp Jupiter had given them.