Jason sat by himself at the Zeus table, pushing his lunch around. He didn't really have an appetite, but he somehow managed to swallow a few bites. His mind kept wandering back to his earlier conversation with Sam and Dean. He didn't know what to think of the brothers. Except that they were really close.

And they're taking care of Percy, Jason thought to reassure himself. The brothers seemed to be nice guys and if Percy can trust them, so can Jason.

Plus, Jason mentally added, they seemed genuinely concerned for Percy even after he had fallen asleep, which made Jason release the tension in his shoulders.

But he knew that something was wrong with his cousin. And Tartarus was somehow behind this whole master plan. But how could he receive those visions?

Jason thought of every god and goddess that he could think of, but not one of them could make any mortal go insane.

Okay, there was Mr. D, but he doesn't count, not really.

Besides, Jason didn't think the wine god would purposely make Percy go insane, unless of course his friend did something stupid, but that's not the point.

The point was, Mr. D wouldn't do something that extreme.

There was a thud on the table, making Jason startle and looking up to see his girlfriend, Piper, sitting across from him.

"Hey," Piper greeted.

"Hi," Jason replied, trying to smile.

"Are you thinking about Percy?" Piper got straight down to the problem.

Jason gave her a real smile this time. A small one though, but still a smile. "Maybe I'm thinking about you," he proposed. "About our life together."

Piper raised an eyebrow and smirked. "So, our lives together are going to be bad and depressing?"

Jason's eyes widened in bewilderment. "What?"

Piper laughed. "The expression you were making. It looked like you were sad." She tilted her head in consideration. "Or angry. I mean, you were stabbing your food like they offended you or something."

Jason gaped at her, but he was still smiling. "No, I wasn't! I was...merely pushing my food around, with the occasional poke."

Piper chuckled. "Right," she teased, winking at him. "Okay."

Jason stared at her lovingly. With every passing day, his love for Piper grew and grew. He was eternally grateful for her, with her smile and her personality and her everything. It made him feel whole, even whilst through this whole nightmare of Percy disappearing and trying to find out what really happened. She kept him grounded and ever since Percy got stabbed by the demon who possessed Nico, a new partner that Pitch Black, the Guardians' enemy, had gained, everything was surreal.

That was something which Jason never wanted to see again in his lifetime. Sure, he's lost friends that he cared about, but it wasn't a close-knit family like the Seven, you know? The Seven were basically family; they've been through anything and everything together the past couple of months. So, watching Percy be killed and dying in front of his friends hit a sore spot.

A very sore spot.

"Seriously, though," Piper's voice invaded into Jason's thoughts. He glanced up at his girlfriend, just in time for Piper's smile to fade away slowly. "You okay?"

There were a million things that Jason wanted to respond with, starting from "I'm fine" to "I don't know how to feel."

He decided to go with his first choice. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, Pipes."

He could tell that his girlfriend didn't want to push him because, in all honesty, the response he'd given was complete and utter crap, and he knew that Piper knew.

But before Piper could call him out on his bull answer, Jason switched the subject.

Percy's going to be very angry, Jason mused over in his head.

"I saw Percy," he confessed. He looked up to see Piper's eyes widen in shock and unsurprised. "He told me that he was fine and that he was getting help from two brothers that he met on the side of the road who specialize in demons, in a way." He paused before adding, "And they know about demigods."

That was more or less true. From what Jason could grasp, Sam and Dean were already familiar with gods and such, so when Percy came along, the brothers were no strangers-at least to the gods.

"Are you going to tell Annabeth?" Piper finally spoke up. Jason nodded silently in reply.

Piper studied him, her eyes narrowed. "What is it?" She asked. "I thought you would be happy that you finally reached out to Percy."

"It's not that," Jason commented. "It's just..." He hesitated, not sure if he should tell Piper what his cousin didn't imply. "He didn't say where he was. And I don't want to tell Annabeth that I saw her boyfriend but couldn't figure out where he is."

Piper nodded in understanding. She reached out to cover one of his hands with one of her own. "You should still tell her what you know." She leaned across the table and gently kissed Jason on the lips, before standing up from the table. Piper flashed him a smile and was gone.

Jason sighed. He knew Piper was right, but he didn't want to fail Annabeth. They worked so hard in trying to find their missing friend and now that he suddenly popped up, there wasn't a single hint of where he was. He pushed his now cold lunch aside and got to his feet. He had to find a certain daughter of Athena.

***********

After a few hours away, Jason went down to the beach where he knew Annabeth would be, sitting near the dunes watching the waves roll softly up against the shore.

Jason had found out that Annabeth would go and sit there whenever she was feeling stressed. With Percy missing, she had told him, she'd be down there pretty much every day.

He spotted her sitting on the shore, knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. She didn't spare Jason a glance when he sat down next to her.

The two were quiet until Annabeth broke it. "Piper told me that you talked to Percy."

Jason looked over to her, carefully choosing his words. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, I did. He said me that he was fine and that these two brothers were helping him with his search."

"But..."  Annabeth prompted.

Jason frowned. "But what?"

"There's something else, isn't there?" Annabeth finally turned to face Jason and studied him, her startling grey eyes boring into his soul, trying to uncover the truth he was hiding from her.

Jason rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly before he replied. "He asked if I was okay."

Annabeth frowned in concentration, whilst her eyes urged Jason to continue with his story.

"He was pretty freaked out, saying that we were talking before and the Iris-Message was fuzzy and then something attacked me," he said. "But I swear that nothing was in my room. I didn't even know that Percy had called me before."

Annabeth didn't utter a word throughout his tale and just nodded in reply, her brain trying to figure out her boyfriend. "Did he say this while talking to you?" She finally asked.

Jason sighed. "The first time I saw him, Percy was freaking out about some black...thing coming into my room and attacking me. Then after a while, I called Percy to make sure that he was okay, but..."

"But?" Annabeth pushed.

Jason pursed his lips and shook his head. "We may have...gotten into an argument."

A look of understanding crossed over onto the daughter of Athena's face. "Is this part of reason why you're brooding?"

Jason scrunched his eyebrows together and turned to face Annabeth, his expression filled with shock. "What? I'm not brooding!"

"I beg to differ." Annabeth turned back to the ocean, studying the waves. "Jason, when you sat down next to me, I could feel  the broodiness coming off of you in waves." Annabeth closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "No pun intended. Sorry."

Jason looked at the ocean as well, licking his lips before pouting. "I'm not brooding."

"Sure. Whatever you say, Grace." Annabeth shook her head and faced Jason again. "What did you two fight about?" She paused. "If you don't mind my asking."

Jason faked a laugh, thinking that Annabeth wouldn't notice. "You know how Percy is. Always stubborn, that guy. Trying to protect his friends." He mentally winced at the hint of bitterness in his tone.

Apparently, Annabeth detected it as well, because she narrowed her eyes at him. "Is there something you're not telling me, Jason?"

Jason cleared his throat. He couldn't lie to the daughter of wisdom sitting next to him. "He insisted that he was fine, when he clearly was not and things just got out of hand."

"And?" Annabeth prompted.

"And..." Jason slowly drawled out. "He believed that he deserved to be dead."

Annabeth clenched her jaw and looked away, but not without Jason seeing tears forming in her eyes.

"He was pretty upset that his friend lied to him," Jason quietly went on, not trying to put the blame on everyone's shoulders and placing it on his own. "Gods, why did I think that lying to him was a good idea, anyway?"

"We didn't want Percy to know the truth." Annabeth placed a hand gently on his shoulder. "And he knows that, but at the same time, he just wanted answers instead of his friends being-"

"A riddle wrapped inside an enigma wrapped inside a taco?" Jason finished.

"Well, putting that mildly, yes." Annabeth sighed and shook her head. "We are some messed up people."

"That we are, Ms. Chase," Jason leaned back on his hands. "That we are."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jason spotted Annabeth glancing between him and the ocean, as if she wanted to say something else. But before he could ask, Annabeth beat him to the punch.

"Did...Percy say anything else?"

Jason took a deep breath. Here it goes. "He said that he missed you a lot."

Annabeth took a shaky breath and nodded. "And he was okay?"

Jason faltered at that, but he quickly recovered. "Physically, yes. He seemed okay at first glance. But when I actually saw him...it looked as if he was slammed into a brick wall several times. And he had just woken up."

He felt Annabeth's grey eyes burning a hole on the side of his head, but he refused to make contact with her. It teared him up inside having to speak this, but he knew that he can't hide anything from the blonde demigod.

"He's having those dreams again," Annabeth stated, breaking Jason out of his thoughts. Jason closed his eyes and sighed. "What?" He heard the daughter of Athena ask.

When Jason still didn't answer, Annabeth repeated herself. "Jason Grace, what is it?"

Jason licked his lips and opened his eyes, then turned to face the other demigod. "He's been having them," he softly stated. "Annabeth, I think he's always been having them. I don't think they ever stopped."

Jason saw Annabeth's fill with tears of rage as she looked away. Not at Percy, per say, but more like at the world itself. Her hands balled into fists, and Jason first thought that she was going to hit him, before common sense came crawling back to say that she was just mad. Well, more like furious, in Annabeth's case. Or worry, but mostly rage.

When she looked back at Jason, her eyes were thundering. "We've got to figure out what the Hades is going on."

And with that, Annabeth got up to her feet and stormed across the sand dunes, leaving Jason to watch her retreating back.

"You coming, Grace?" Annabeth's voice traveled back down to Jason's ears.

Deciding that he didn't want to keep a furious Annabeth waiting, Jason jumped to his feet and ran to catch up with a determined Annabeth.