𝟬𝟭𝟭. a friend waiting for you back home

"HER NAME IS THALIA," said Annabeth, who was standing under the door of Cabin One. When she arrived, Jason had been shuffling through the other child of Zeus' belongings in the hidden alcoves of the lonely cabin. With the early morning sun shining on her back, Annabeth peered at the photograph in Jason's hands. Her expression was sad like the keepsake brought back fond memories. "She's the other child of Zeus who lived here—but not for long. We used to all be friends. Everyone in that picture...Sorry, I should've knocked."

"It's fine." Jason shrugged. "Not like I think of this place as home."

Annabeth was dressed for travel, with a winter coat over her camp clothes, her knife at her belt, and a backpack across her shoulder. If not for the celestial bronze knife and the lethal glint in her eyes, she might have passed off as any regular teenager going on an overnight trip.

"Then maybe you do have something in common with Aera," she remarked harshly, though her vindictive voice had no effect on him this time.

He focused on the photograph. It was a strip of pictures that you'd take in a do-it-yourself photo booth: Thalia, Annabeth and Aera, both looking much younger (around seven?), and a sandy-haired guy. He looked to be a teenager with a mischievous smile and ragged leather armor over a T-shirt. He seemed close with the girls, with his arms around them like an older brother, but something about his toothy grin put Jason off.

"Who's the other kid in the photo?" Jason asked, not recognizing him. "The sandy-haired guy."

"Shouldn't you know?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him. "That's the 'love' of Aera's life, Luke Castellan..." Annabeth paused. "...he's dead now."

Jason swore Annabeth was about to say "because of Aera" but thought against it at the very last moment. Her words felt like a bright red stop sign to Jason, warning him that if he continued going down this road with Aera, he'd meet the same fate. Jason decided it was best not to ask more, but the bitter way Annabeth said "the love of Aera's life" made Jason wonder if maybe Aera had been more than a friend to Annabeth in the past.

"Gods, I can't believe she kept that," Annabeth said lightly, much less sullen this time and almost reminiscent. "Aera stabbed Thalia in the arm twice after she threw Luke off a cliff. Long story. I didn't think Thalia wanted anything to do with Aera anymore after she joined The Hunters."

"What's with The Hunters?"

"They have to swear off boys when they're recruited."

Jason instantly understood. "Makes sense."

"Actually, you'd be surprised," Annabeth responded, a twinge of amusement sparkling in her grey eyes. "Aera used to hate love. Hard to believe, right? If she wasn't so obsessed with Luke, she might have joined the Hunters."

Jason glanced back down at the sandy-haired guy's face. So not only had this guy convinced Aera to rebel against the gods, but he'd also changed Aera's view on love? What could be so special about him? For someone who had led a rebellion war against the gods, he looked pretty normal to Jason. In most of the pictures, he was playing tricks on Aera while she was trying to pose for the camera. She would get mad at him while Annabeth and Thalia laughed at them on the sides.

Then it finally hit Jason why Luke's perfectly white teeth irked him—it reminded him of Dylan, who always smiled like he was God's gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere.

With all that talk about appearance, deep down, Jason had been secretly expecting Aera's famed lover to be more...impressive.

Jason shook away the useless thoughts.

Since he had discovered it this morning behind one of the braziers, Jason kept getting the feeling that this photo of Thalia was important. He was missing something. Jason felt this strange sense of connection to this other child of Zeus—someone who might understand his confusion, maybe even answer some questions. But another voice inside him, an insistent whisper, said: Dangerous. Stay away. You aren't ready yet.

But the words of the she-wolf in his dream that night nagged him. He found himself asking Annabeth, "What's Thalia's last name?"

Annabeth's face blanched. "She didn't use a last name, really. If she had to, she'd use her mom's, but they didn't get along. Thalia ran away when she was pretty young."

Jason waited.

"Grace," Annabeth answered. "Thalia Grace."

Jason's fingers went numb. The picture fluttered to the floor.

"You okay?" Annabeth asked.

Shreds of his memory had ignited, connecting all the warbled images Jason had dreamt in his dreams last night and piecing them all together.

This memory had been older than the rest.

They'd ended up waiting in the staircase hallway of an abandoned building. Jason was leaning against the railing, watching the rain splatter from the open doorway out onto a rooftop. As soon as they reached the next city over, it had started pouring. He and Aera had quickly taken shelter in the first building available.

It was normal for the weather to get extremely cold where they were, but it had suddenly started so pouring so hard that the air turned grey, bundled in mist. The temperature seemed to keep dropping, each raindrop nearly as heavy and solid as a sphere of hail, pattering above their heads.

Jason was starting to like their odds less and less. Something about the hail felt unnatural, like something or someone was tampering with it, purposely making it colder and harder to travel in this weather.

Meanwhile, Aera had curled up in the corner of the platform directly below him. Jason realized he had only been half-listening to her ramble about her injuries from their last fight. She had refused to let him treat her with the nectar. She had snatched it from him and trickled the tiniest amount, wincing as though the remedy hurt her more than it healed her. Her skin had sizzled and hissed. Jason had never seen a demigod react to nectar that way...

"...scar so big," she was whining now, "on my left side. I can't wear a bikini for at least a month."

Jason was bewildered, breaking out of his previous pondering. It was the middle of the winter season. Where was she going to wear a bikini? Into a rainstorm? "You don't have to wear a bikini."

Aera spread her fingers. "But it's, like, this big." She showed him about one and a half inches.

"It'll fade," he assured.

Aera snuffled angrily and turned away into the corner with her knees tucked in.

Jason didn't get her moodiness. He had sustained injuries twice as big before. They were demigods. They healed faster than normal mortals. If anything, Jason thought Aera should've been proud she had conquered such a troubling ordeal and came out with a mark of honor. Maybe she was trying to pull another mind trick on him again? To make him feel bad for her?

"Do you usually cry this easily?" Jason asked, out of curiosity. "Earlier you cried because your hair got wet. Now you're crying over your scars."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Aera snapped. She glared at him and for the first time, Jason noticed how red and puffy her eyes had gotten. "It's called having style." She huffed. "Forget it. A fashion terrorist like you would never understand."

As Aera hugged her knees and hid her face down between them, Jason started to feel bad. He didn't mean to make her more upset. He imagined the last ambush at the cemetery must have been pretty traumatic for her. If he hadn't picked an argument with her and then stormed off, she wouldn't have been cornered...

Swallowing his pride, Jason went down the stairs and sat next to Aera against the wall. He tried to soften his voice as much as he could so she knew he wasn't trying to be malicious. He inhaled a deep breath. "You really wanna wear a bikini that much?"

"You don't get it," Aera sniffled. "I was gonna go to The Bahamas for some sun. I hate this weather! Makes me too depressed to put together a good outfit."

Jason recalled how she had risked her neck, just to go back for her shoes in the middle of a monster attack. He had to admit her determination was impressive but extremely misguided. Even if they were expensive shoes, they couldn't be worth more than her life.

"You know," he said gently, "beauty isn't everything."

Aera let out a little scoff. Jason couldn't tell if it was out of exasperation or amusement. Maybe both. "Out of all the barbaric things you've said, that was the lowest." She glanced at him warily. "Where I come from, beauty is everything. It's your greatest blessing and your greatest curse. It'll save you from ugly situations, but it'll also put you in ugly situations. Know what I mean?"

Not really, he wanted to say. How could something be both your greatest blessing and your greatest curse at the same time? Something that saved you and put you in danger?

Aera seemed to be able to tell just by looking at Jason's face. She sighed in resolve. "Of course you don't. You've never had your entire worth depend on how you look. Consider yourself lucky whose son you were born as."

For some reason, Aera sounded more weary than condescending this time around. Jason let her words sink in. He was grateful for who he was and who he was becoming, but lucky he wasn't so sure. All his life, Jason had been treated like some prince-in-waiting. Before he could really figure out who he was, everyone had already looked at Jason as their leader. He grew up faster than most kids his age, and he had to always be mature. He had to set an example.

Their situations might have been exponentially different, but Jason could relate to what Aera said about having a background that was both a source of pride and pain.

Jason oftentimes felt like he had too much power in his hands. How many people had respected him just because of who his father was? Sometimes, Jason wondered how different his life would be if he had been born someone else...

Aera caught his gaze. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Jason forgot he had been nodding off in thought while staring at her. He cleared his throat. "I'm looking at you normally."

"Nah uh," Aera insisted. "You're looking at me all...thoughtfully like you're cooking up ways to drag me to that dirty rotten Jupiter place again."

She wagged her finger accusingly at him.

"What?" Jason protested. No one had ever said anything like that to him before. "This is just how I look."

"Honestly," Aera huffed. Jason didn't know what she was going on about this time. Had he really been looking at her that thoughtfully? "I don't even want to imagine what your Jupiter place looks like. You all have zero taste. An oversized bedsheet as formalwear? Seriously? Which genius came up with that?"

In spite of her slander, Jason's rigid demeanor loosened. To be frank, he had never liked wearing a toga. Whenever he had to put one on, he had to fight the fear that he was going to trip over the long fabric and make a fool of himself during a Senate meeting.

Jason played with the zipper of his jacket absentmindedly. "Probably the same guy who invented the aqueducts."

Aera cracked a small smile. Jason was starting to feel a little more at ease now. Their wounds were healing and Aera had stopped trying to strangle him with the floral scrunchie on her wrist. That had to be a good sign. Right?

"What do you think they're doing right now?" Aera asked him out of the blue. "Your friends?"

Jason rested his head back against the wall. He didn't even want to think about the state of camp in his absence. "It's probably chaos over there."

Aera raised her eyebrows. "More chaotic than that tasteless baggy clothing trend?"

Jason sighed. "You might see us as barbaric, but we're a family. My colleague is going to do whatever it takes to find me, and my friend, Poppy..." Jason scratched the back of his ear. It was already ringing at the thought. "I'm sure gonna get an earful from her when I get back."

At that, Aera didn't seem to have anything snarky to say for once. In fact, she wasn't even looking at him. She was staring past Jason towards the rainy doorway like her mind was someplace else.

"What about you?" Jason couldn't help but ask. He thought about how charming Aera was and how dazzling her smile could be if she tried. She must've been popular where she came from. "Your friends back home must be waiting for you."

The look in Aera's eyes seemed to grow even farther away. "They're not missing me," she said softly, so soft Jason almost lost it to the sound of the heavy rain outside, "They haven't for a long time."

"That can't be true," Jason replied in disbelief, touching her shoulder with his. "I bet they're searching for you right now."

"That sounds nice," Aera commented. "But where I'm from, there's no one waiting for me to come back. At least, not the way your friends are missing you." Aera continued mellowly, the most calm yet unpredictable that Jason had seen her, "Someone who used to be my friend once told me she felt like I was a million miles away from her when I was right in front of her." The corners of Aera's lips twitched, but her eyes wouldn't meet Jason's, locked on a piece of garbage on the stairs. "Can you miss someone who feels worlds away from you even when you're next to them? Isn't that just a stranger?"

Then Aera shook her head lightly as though she didn't want an answer to that. She stretched her legs out in front of her, patting down the bottom of her dress. "I'm nobody to her, nobody to all of them. And that," Aera smiled in a bittersweet way, "is both my greatest blessing and my greatest curse. Being alone."

Jason examined Aera's legs. He wasn't trying to be a creep, but it was hard for him to miss all the scratches on her bare calves and around her ankles. Their run had been ceaseless for a few days now. Aera hadn't stopped complaining about how her dress was getting torn up and a million other things the farther they rushed from the monsters, but now Jason's chest was starting to ache for her.

Aera had been by herself when they had discovered her. Who knows what kind of dangers and horrors she must have witnessed all alone? As powerful as Aera was, it just wasn't safe for demigods to be alone in the world. It seemed so dangerous and quite honestly, very lonely. As another demigod, it didn't feel right to Jason that Aera had to survive without the support of others.

Jason's smile faded.

Their clothing had dried and the stairwell was warm, but Jason felt like it was raining down ice in his heart. How could he have misunderstood Aera this much?

Jason wanted to apologize, but that didn't feel like enough. It wasn't sincere enough to convey how he felt. Instead, his hands went to the gold chain hanging around his neck. He took it off and looped the gold dog tag around Aera's neck.

Aera stared at him cautiously.

"My mother gave me this the last time I saw her," Jason said before Aera could get the wrong idea and start trying to kill him again. "It's all I have of her. I want you to have it."

"Why?"

"It'll protect you," he told her. "So, you won't have to worry about any more scars ruining your plans in The Bahamas."

"Are you sure you want to give me this?" Aera lightly put her hand over the chain, reluctant. The word: GRACE was engraved into the tag in capital letters. "I mean," she amended with a more haughty tone, "how many times have I saved your handsome face since I met you? Seems like you need protection more than I do, pretty boy."

Jason almost second-guessed himself. He had nearly forgotten that Aera was a threat to his home. No one could figure out where she came from or how she had survived so long on her own. They were supposed to be enemies. Jason was supposed to be bringing her back to the legion for a formal hearing.

Then Jason remembered the monster ambush at the summit and how Aera had risked her life to come back for him. She had said it was because she couldn't leave her designer shoes behind, but if that was the case, she wouldn't have needed to stir Jason back to consciousness with her powers.

Not to mention, Jason had Poppy do a thorough investigation. All clues pointed towards the conclusion that Aera didn't commit the crime she had been accused of.

Jason decided he was done being brash. He couldn't keep blaming Aera for their problems just because it was easier than solving them. Aera wasn't his enemy. He finally knew what to do.

"No more fighting, Aera," Jason decided. "I won't try to bring you back to the Senate anymore. You don't need to explain anything to us. If you want to continue being on your own, you won't be forced to serve the legion. I'll make sure of it."

"Careful, Jason," Aera warned, her low and wary voice befitting a leopard before it pounces, "Do you really know the criminal you've taken prisoner?"

Jason had weighed and weighed the consequences until he got sick of them. He had never been more certain about anything before.

"Maybe not entirely," he admitted. "But I know I want her safe." Jason gently swept Aera's hair out of the chain so that the necklace wasn't strangling it. "I want you to join us, but it's not my decision to make. What I can do is give you this. If you're ever struggling on your own or you're lost or tired, show any member of the legion that necklace and they'll know what it means."

Aera's eyes were fiery. She wrapped her fingers around the chain like she wanted to rip it off for not matching her outfit. "What does it mean?"

Jason stroked a piece of hair behind Aera's ear, his fingers brushing over the smooth, white pearl hair comb weaved in her hair. He was going to miss her fashion first, think later attitude.

"It means you'll always have a friend waiting for you back home."

"Jason!" someone was calling him. "JASON!"

Annabeth was shaking him and Jason found himself back in Cabin One. Annabeth was gripping his arm so tightly, Jason was sure he'd see a bruise there later. He tried to steady his breathing.

"What is it?" Annabeth pressed. "You blacked out again. Did you remember something?"

Jason reached towards his neck and touched the gold dog tag he had woken up with that morning. He was sure he wasn't wearing it before he and Aera parted ways last night and he went to bed in the cot the other campers had brought into the cabin for him. Maybe Hera had put it on him while he was asleep? That was even more unnerving to think about than his Pops being this giant angry hippie statue towering above him.

Still, Jason knew he couldn't keep this to himself. It was hard enough to keep his rising memories a secret from Aera, and he had to get Annabeth's help. She had been friends with Thalia and Aera before. Maybe she could advise him.

"You have to swear not to tell anyone else," he said.

"Jason—"

"Swear it," he insisted. "Until I figure out what's going on, what this all means—" He rubbed the burned tattoos on his forearm. "You have to keep a secret."

Annabeth hesitated, but her curiosity won out. "All right. Until you tell me it's okay, I won't share what you say with anyone else. I swear on the River Styx."

Thunder rumbled, even louder than usual for the cabin. You are our saving Grace, as always, the wolf had snarled in his dream. Choose wisely, treading forward. Or the girl with the saltwater pearl in her hair will bring you to ruin. Do not fail again, son of Jupiter.

Jason picked up the photo from the floor. "My last name is Grace," he said, showing her the necklace. "This is my sister."

Annabeth turned pale. Jason could see her wrestling with dismay, disbelief, and anger as she looked between the dog tag and his face. She thought he was lying. His claim was impossible. And part of him felt the same way, but as soon as he spoke the words, he knew they were true.

Jason's mind was racing a mile a minute, trying to discern all the parts of his memory before they slipped from him again. His words spilled out of his mouth. "Someone who used to be my friend once told me she felt like I was a million miles away from her when I was right in front of her.' That was you, wasn't it? You said that to Aera." Jason gripped his head, which was still pounding. "I have memories of her, but she doesn't remember anything about me. Why is that?"

Seeming to still be at war with her emotions, Annabeth opened her mouth. Before she could get a word out, the doors of the cabin burst open, cutting their conversation short. Half a dozen campers stormed in, led by the bald guy from the Iris Cabin, Butch.

"Hurry!" he said, and Jason couldn't tell if his expression was excitement or fear. "The dragon is back!"

They had no choice but to follow him. As they rushed out towards the lawn, Jason couldn't stop thinking about the dog tag and the pearl in Aera's hair.

"Do you really know the criminal you've taken prisoner?"

"If you want to continue being on your own, you won't be forced to serve the legion."

"Choose wisely, treading forward. Or the girl with the saltwater pearl in her hair will bring you to ruin. Do not fail again, son of Jupiter."

Forget the emotions Annabeth had been grappling with. Jason was stuck in a tornado of his own with no way out.

And this was all before the demigod with the eye patch tried to assassinate Aera.