The biggest of thank you's to marivictal for beta reading this fic! I've been talking to her so long now I barely remember a time I wasn't consulting her about my ramblings on this series! Go. Check. Out. Her. Work. (On Tumblr)

Funfact, it is my birthday and I love to post today simply because it brings me joy. This is a personal holiday.

The next chapter will go up Dec. 21st, and all subsequent chapters will proceed Monday's as usual, with an extra on New Years, because I also enjoy doing that! Spread the love and cheer of this time however you can!

All that out of the way, Disclaimer Time; I've been wondering for quite some time now how I'm going to handle Jason's attraction to Piper, considering future events but wishing to keep this canon compliant, and I've settled on general disinterest in Jason, a bit of abstract horror at having a girlfriend put in his mind that never fully goes away, but not a main focus going forward. He'll think Piper's a knockout, of course, his attraction to her seems genuine, but without the implanted memories here he's mostly going to be confused at why he keeps dating her throughout this series while not latching onto any other potential love interests. I'm perfectly happy with not everyone needing one.

One new disclaimer for our dear Piper, I have no clue about Native American tribes nor their customs. I will generally look up what I can about her Cherokee background, but as always, if I get anything wrong do please correct me. If you know for certain the book also did something explicitly wrong, I'd be happy to just edit it out as if the book hadn't made such a faux pas. It's what I intend to do moving forward for other blatant cannon missteps that were taken if I can't correct them in series.

PJOHOOPJOHOOPJOHOO

JASON I

"Jason, you going to do the honors?" Percy offered him the bag.

Jason felt the heavy weight of picking out the solid gold book like a warm lightbulb in his grasp. Fragile, ready to over heat the moment he wasn't thinking about it as he traced his finger over the earthy brown I. The Roman Numeral for one.

This was it. It was finally happening for him. It had been taunting him on the edge of his vision for over a week as he sat through Percy's ordeal of a life, almost as frightened as he was hungry to get his own answers back as he got a taste of the chaos Percy's life was.

He took a deep breath and heard the crack in the room as the spine was disturbed upon him opening the first page.

He looked down, and didn't quite find what he was expecting.

"Um," Jason paused in confusion upon just seeing his name, and that was it. "It, it just starts guys."

"What do you mean?" Alex leaned over, trying as best as he could not to seem threatening about it as Jason held hostage his beloved chapter title questionnaire. Today he wore a poofy dark green shirt and tight pink pants with strings and buckles in a very piratey kind of fashion nobody had quite been able to suss out the reasoning for, or bothered to ask. Honestly it was more in fear he'd deck the outfit with hat, hook, and eyepatch if they did, possibly a live parrot at worst.

"It starts with me getting electrocuted," he insisted as he stared down at the first sentence.

Percy shot to his feet and snatched the book away. He glared at the first page of Jason's life in betrayal to just see a question mark sitting atop the chapter's usual honor spot, and then rapidly began flipping through the rest. Every time he found a new chapter, there was just a name at the top, the letters jumbling together too much to care what names exactly. He only made it through the first five before giving up. "Are you kidding me!" Somehow, at the bottom of the ocean, they could still hear the sharp winds heightening his displeasure. "I had to live for days in those stupid things and you don't! How is this fair? Who wrote these! I demand a rewrite!"

"No worries Percy," Alex said with a grin that made him drop the book and hop back in fright what he had in his head. "I got you covered."

"No. Alex, wait-" Percy still wanted to rant and protest at the unfairness of it all, but he also knew it was too late. He'd screwed himself over monumentally.

Alex was going to be naming each chapter now, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.*

At least Alex didn't have the power to make these from his point of view again. Percy could at least take solace in that

Jason picked up the book without much care either way. Answer's would be there with or without those goofy things, and he'd waited long enough.

EVEN BEFORE HE GOT ELECTROCUTED, Jason was having a rotten day.

"Sounds familiar," Percy said with nothing but sympathy.

"At least Thalia won't start losing her shit on sentence one," Annabeth said fondly.

"We don't know he's immune to it! I'll get knocked on my ass if I'm not prepared to channel it!" Thalia snapped. She wasn't very harsh about it, her mind offering he'd just blown himself up like she had the first time she tried. She was still just as grumpy as Jason about the way this was starting. At least one half-blood kid out there deserved to start their story with a nice hug and a promising day!

... backseat of a bus, holding hands with a girl he didn't know.

"You're right, that all sounds rotten to the core!" Will mock gasped.

"Are you going to blow up your own share of school buses?" Alex asked with interest.

"Probably," Jason sighed. He'd had no shortage of screw ups in his own past, this he had no doubts without memory to back it up.

... Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. He didn't know his own age.

They all exchanged baffled looks at that.

"Must have been hit with one hell of a memory spell in your recent past, maybe that's when you got yanked in here, right before all this happened?" Nico offered halfheartedly.

Nobody believed him. It was far to much of a coincidence he had amnesia same as Percy upon arriving.

Thalia opened, then closed her mouth, a bit ashamed to admit she'd lost track of the years a bit in that tree. She wasn't quite sure if he was fifteen or sixteen yet either.

...Jason was pretty sure he didn't live in the desert.

"That's good," Magnus offered with some luke-warm encouragement. "You've still got instincts at least."

Instincts that hadn't done him much good in here, Jason struggled to swallow. He'd distrusted them by his so called instincts, and not until he'd pushed them aside and let himself laugh did he begin to relax, and even then, he never felt perfectly at ease and normal. Like he'd never hit that balance of what he was before and now Percy so easily straddled.

...Her eyes changed color like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, and green.

"Monster?" Percy asked mildly.

"One who wants to hold your hand? Man, I'm jealous." Will snorted.

... would've looked pretty scary if he hadn't been five feet zero.

"Now he's definitely a monster," Percy frowned with absolute confidence.

"Should I name the chapter that?" Alex asked with a wicked grin. "Where's Waldo Monster Addition? How many enemies you think this guy's pulling in?"

Percy gave him a dower glare and didn't deign to answer.

"He might be the roman version of Chiron," Thalia offered instead. "Hiding whatever help he is," she didn't want to think her brother woke up surrounded by enemies.

...his eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl deepened.

"Are you a trouble maker? Yeah, I could say that," Percy busted out laughing.

Jason looked like he had half a mind to wad up the first page and throw it at Percy. It hadn't done him any good anyways.

Annabeth sighed and couldn't blame her boyfriend. Their hope this Hedge guy was a friend instead of an enemy just slipped a little with that line, but Thalia at least lost a drop of anxiousness as she grinned with Percy for a moment.

...picked up a baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer.

This line only phased Will, who hoped this guy was a monster now because that was not a great way to be talking to underage youths.

Jason was growing more desolate by the word. By this time in Percy's, they'd had a good few flashbacks and his reason for being at the museum! He still wouldn't even know his own last name if it weren't for Thalia!

...This is the Wilderness School. 'Where kids are the animals.'"

"What kind of animals?" Alex asked with interest. He hadn't revealed his shapeshifter ability, mostly because he couldn't show off yet.

"Honey badgers, elephants, chimps, maybe a hippo if he's lucky," Nico said with a wicked smile. Nobody decided to question why he just listed several seemingly random animals. They had a bad feeling it was linked to some death census they didn't want to know.

She said it like it was a joke they'd shared before.

Thalia narrowed her eyes with suspicion why this girl was trying to lure him into a false sense of security.

"Maybe we should get the Hecate cabin on some kind of memory restoration potion," Annabeth frowned. It wouldn't do them any good now, but she had this bad feeling in the back of her mind the more that wasn't revealed.

... We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW."

"I hope she's not a monster now," Percy offered as he chuckled in appreciation.

"Is that all it takes to win you over? Grand theft auto?" Annabeth asked with interest, though half her mind was offering if this girl was a demigod and not just some mortal, she may be a child of Hermes with that kind of introduction.

"It doesn't hurt," he agreed.

... He raised his eyebrows at Jason like, Can you believe her?

Thalia's anxiety was growing by the word though. This could well be the very monster that wiped Jason's memory. That sounded far to much like manipulating mist, or worse, charmspeak, which only powerful sorceresses used.

Leo looked like a Latino Santa's elf,

"Oh gods," Percy quaffed a laugh, now uncaring whatever the description of this guy was, he would now be pictured with a red and green cone hat upon his head.

... fingers wouldn't stop moving...fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket.

"I'm guessing, half-blood on him," Annabeth said thoughtfully.

"There are signs," Nico snorted, wondering again why they called her the smart one. "Don't quit your day job and join the satyrs until we know."

Thalia was personally hoping this was an actual friend of Jason's, caught up in whatever madness this was with him. It might not have started at the beginning, like they'd all assumed and hoped, but possibly it was just starting with his most recent quest? Surely he hadn't gone out on that alone.

... naturally hyper or hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo.

"It is surprisingly hard to tell the difference, I've been told," Percy agreed amiably. Something Jason oddly seemed to lack, it had bothered him in an odd way he'd never been able to put his finger on about the guy.

"Wasn't that guy, in here?" Jason only proved Percy's point by not being distracted in the slightest, but instead was frowning at where Magnus and Alex were sitting. When Oceanus had started zapping random kids in here, he'd only seen them for a flash of a second, but those faces had haunted him for a reason he couldn't put into feelings or words. Particularly the girl with the purple cloak. This boy had been one of them.

Thalia was cheered all the more, her idea getting some validation.

"Anyway," Leo said,

"Wait, wait, no cover story for why Jason's there? What half-ass spell did a god just fail at?" Percy laughed as he suddenly rubbed his hands together eagerly, apparently ecstatic to play a game he'd always claimed to loath. "So, what are we assuming guys? Stole one to many books from the library?"

"Give him a little more creativity than that," Alex smirked, "blew up a generator at one of those factories running our planet!"

"He's got to have something of his dad in him, Thalia got all the attitude, maybe he is secretly a ladies man," Nico chuckled. "I'm voting he got caught sleeping with the president's daughter!"

Will threw his head back laughing hard, even Annabeth gave a curt nod and said, "go big or go home."

"I hate you all," but Jason was smiling, just for a moment as he and Percy caught each other's eye. They were both grinning now, at least for a moment.

... Why are you looking at me like that?" "I don't know you," Jason said.

"Nothing?" Thalia tried to cajole another answer out of him as if he hadn't been trying to think of someone from his past all his time in here and suddenly being presented with one wasn't of interest to him.

Jason just shook his head, contemplating if he should just hand the book over to her. There was nothing in it for him. He had no proof of this, just a dead feeling in him rising with every word. And Percy had thought his life was just one giant cosmic joke?! He didn't even get a life to laugh at. Just, more questions.

Leo gave him a crocodile grin. "Sure. I'm not your best friend. I'm his evil clone."

"The fact that I kind of believe that right now," Will rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He had no idea what the rules for this were going to be, and it made him feel very tense and awkward like Percy's life had rarely put in him.

... Could you use your megaphone, please?"

"What did he do to the megaphone?" Alex asked with the same crocodile grin. Percy laughed along.

Okay, maybe it was a good thing this Leo guy wouldn't have stuck around. Three of them would have had this place blown up after a page. They could barely wrangle these two not to escalate each other.

... the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"

Magnus and Alex got a particularly hard laugh out of one of their old jokes making a sporadic comeback. Though they weren't the only two that laughed along, Percy was holding his sides with mirth and trying to say, "okay, I really hope he's not an evil twin now!"

Jason was chuckling, just a bit for the infectious noise, but it was still a forced feeling born to push the misery aside. Percy had come in here with three friends, more or less, and then granted his girlfriend. He hadn't even been gifted false one's he only had a distant connection to. Was Oceanus in on something, some malevolent rule of Poseidon, (or Neptune?) to keep him isolated?

But when the laughter quieted down and nobody was egging Jason to get on with it, he felt a kinship all the same. The respectfulness that they'd go at his pace. He might not have come in here with friends, but he'd made them along the way.

...Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy."

"There's no way he's in cahoots with anyone against Jason on that bus, he's to lovable," Will declared. "I'll even bet my day job on it," he grinned at Nico.

"Your loss if wrong," Nico chuckled, "I already don't enter that medical room if I can avoid it and I sure won't be now." He was swallowing his slight bit of jealousy of that surprisingly well. Leo sounded quite a bit like the Stoll twins, of whom Will had come in here with a mild crush on Conner. He'd said it was gone, but having some other trickster around for Will to moon over wasn't putting Nico in a favorable mood towards him off the bat.

... shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren't you?" Jason stared at him blankly.

"Man, if that prank has never actually happened to you, you've had a boring life," Percy told him as if he'd just heard the tragedy of a lifetime.

Jason just looked at him blankly.

..."There's a shocker," Leo muttered.

"Jason hasn't shocked anyone in there yet," Alex smirked.

"Boo," Jason shook his head, "don't make me start doing it on command in here."

Alex flicked his hair over his shoulder without much care for the mild threat.

...Jason shrugged helplessly. "It's worse than that. I don't know who I am."

The miserable, frustrated, angry words packed into saying that didn't feel like they were just being read. Up to this point, he'd sounded detached, hungry even, but with that he just tossed it on the floor and then kicked it away, and then buried his face in his hands.

He'd never quit at anything in his life. It was a fact that bubbled to the surface of his mind casually. He didn't try to grasp at the why's or how's of it or it would pop, but it was enough.

He didn't know why this was happening to him, but then, neither did Percy. Envy was potent on his tongue as he looked up, but he wouldn't let himself glare at him. It wasn't his fault. This book might not be the autobiography he'd wanted, but it did have answers. He'd been piecing himself together this whole time by himself just fine. If this stupid book the gods had gifted him didn't want to help, then fine! He'd do it without these stupid words! He'd read his turn and play this folly and refuse to quit just because it wasn't going easy!

The others were silent, like they were sitting peacefully around at his wake. He felt dead, on the inside. Like a zombie probably did if it bothered to pick up a book and stare uselessly at the strange shapes. His sister offered him a cautious hand on his shoulder, a promise at least he wasn't alone, and it did help. He liked his space, he liked being alone, but it did make the words continuing to flow feel a little less vial to know he wasn't in this aspect of being blind alone. He had friends in the dark with him.

... the National Museum of Nowhere, Jason thought.

"I wouldn't even bet against that not being a real museum," Percy snorted.

Annabeth got that look in her eye, the kind that meant she was trying to figure out how to design such a place. What kind of door would lead to nowhere? Yeah, that was a riddle for someone other than him.

...jeans and sneakers, a purple T-shirt, and a thin black windbreaker.

Minus the windbreaker, exactly what he was wearing now! Shocker, yet another non-answer! Whoever would have thought he'd actually find some relief to find himself in a clown costume, at least that would be a question that might come with an answer!

...a helpful tone that made Jason think this was not going to be helpful.

"At least you still have those killer instincts," Thalia said with a thin smile.

"And here I just thought I perfected that skill meeting you guys," Jason agreed. "Nope, at least I came in here with one sense intact."

... running ten miles a day through the cacti and weaving daisies into hats!

"Honestly, sounds like a place I would not be surprised to end up in," Percy shrugged.

"If anybody tried to drag you out of New York without a quest attached you'd kill them, monster or not," Annabeth grinned.

"Fair," Percy agreed, rubbing the back of his neck, but he still kind of wanted to argue the point he'd subject himself to this to rescue Jason from this place if need be. He had the record to get in.

...twenty guys, half that many girls. None of them looked like hardened criminals,

"Not all of them are covered in tattoos and facial piercing's Jace," Magnus snorted.

"I don't think there's a normal standard for anything," Alex sniffed.

"Oh trust me, we guessed that about you," Jason promised.

... he wondered why he belonged with them.

"Don't get me started on how many of us do end up winding up in that kind of system when satyrs bring them to camp," Annabeth said stiffly. It was pretty hard to find them like that too. There just weren't enough searchers compared to the hundreds of juvenile centers and foster homes out there.

...You do everything I say and give me your dessert and do my chores—"

"Leo!" Piper snapped.

"She's not going to be super fun, is she?" Percy sighed.

"Every group needs a straight man," Annabeth actually looked a little wounded. She was well aware she was the one having to knock Percy and Grover's heads together to pay attention, and rarely listened when they tried to do the same to her.

"Any other accusations you want to make about this girl before the monster reveals themselves?" Thalia smirked.

"Probably," Percy agreed without shame. "If she shows up in here, I'll be the first one to tell her she's acting suspicious as hell."

...we are friends. Well, Piper's a little more than your friend, the last few weeks—"

Annabeth caught on the time frame with great interest. It was no concrete answer of course, the Mist could manipulate mortals minds into believing anything, but she gave Thalia a hopeful look all the same. It would have been far easier for whoever had put Jason there to have just made him a new student that day, alone and isolated. Giving others weeks of false memories of him made this seem some sort of trap, yes, but also gave the indication nobody was going to hunt him down and kill him right this moment. He should get a chance to adjust himself at this new place, hopefully. That just left the bigger question of what they were waiting on.

Jason looked somehow more disappointed and confused that the ruse went so deep. Was it just his mind clouded and this Piper girl really was his girlfriend and he was the one at a loss?

...but he felt nothing. He was positive he would feel something if so! There had been no mistaking Percy was taken with Annabeth before her name was even known to all of them. He should have some resemblance to the idea? If not Piper, then someone?

What a sad life he must have had, he reflected glumly, for a fake memory to seem more real to someone than the zero he had to himself.

..."Who, Coach Hedge? He'd try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head."

"We haven't tried that," Percy said with a grin Jason didn't like.

"Oh sure, you're all for it now," Thalia said with a smirk that Percy should have been running from. "If someone had suggested it back when you didn't have all your memories, I'd like to see that."

Percy shrugged, and cleared his throat. "Give it your best shot! I'll try anything!"

Annabeth smacked him upside the head. He gave a gasp upon turning to her. "Eureka! It worked!"

"Was I this unhelpful to you?" Jason asked mildly. "What have I done to you to deserve this?"

Percy tapped his chin. "Give me a minute, I'll think of something."

"We don't have an hour to wait," Jason smirked before going on.

..."Leo, Jason needs help," Piper insisted. "He's got a concussion or—"

"I didn't hear her offering an alternative besides that guy though," Will easily kept on the important thing as he tugged nervously at his ear, a strange habit of his from when he'd been attacked by a stymphalian bird and it had nearly been ripped off. Nico assumed he did it still half expecting Lee to smack his hand away. He'd never offered ambrosia and necter to the two in hopes that would fix this, because their godly food couldn't cure the mind. That would take Mr. D's kind of power. Still, he wished he had some better alternative.

"Is she trying to get him alone with Hedge?" Thalia asked anxiously.

"I should know that, shouldn't I?" Jason frowned, feeling a strain on his brain, searching for something that as always, wasn't there. "I, should have some- My question is, when is this exactly?" He scowled, still resisting the urge to toss this book away every other word. "I'm, I'm not getting anything! This doesn't feel like I'm getting any sense back! I don't know any of these guys! I should at least get some deja vu if I got memory whipped in the past and now, right?!" He turned to Percy, who's beanbag went skittering away as if a scared kitten from the sudden force of wind that went with Jason's motion, pathetically grateful there was someone else who had gone through something similar to this too.

Percy gave him a sad nod of agreement as he began butt-scooting it back in place beside Annabeth.

Jason continued with yet more outrage. The winds were starting to pick up in here. "So either, this is supposed to be happening to me now while I'm down here, or, or-" there was no other answer. Instead of getting a book on his past as Percy had been given, he'd been given the godly gift of, of foresight?! Where was the justice in that!?

"I'm so sorry Jason," Percy alone dared to say.

The winds died down.

It didn't make him feel better. Their combined sorry didn't do anything to give him the key to his stolen past.

But he soldiered on. Because if this book wasn't going to give it to him, dammit he'd do it himself when he got out of here. And that wasn't going to happen until these stupid things were done! He had a path, and he'd follow it. Why torment himself over another answer that wasn't possible? It was his turn, so he was going to finish it.

...The new guy wedged himself between Jason and Piper and knocked Leo down.

"Push him in a cactus Jace," Alex said vengefully at once.

Jason gave a lifeless smile. He couldn't even pretend he'd know what he'd do in this coming time because he didn't know anything!

He winced at the self-pitying thought. It was a lie, born of frustration. His first instinct was the same- well okay, not as violent as Alex's, but born of the same instinct. He would not stand idly by and watch someone bully Leo anymore than the others in this room. At least they all had that together.

...like he was God's gift to juvenile delinquent's everywhere. Jason hated him instantly.

"The Nancy Bobofit of your school?" Magnus plugged up his nose as if the rancid smell would get through the words.

"Every school's got them," Percy agreed. He'd know, he's been to the most.

"Go away, Dylan," Piper grumbled. "I didn't ask to work with you."

"If Hedge assigned groups, then we know he's the monster," Alex huffed.

"Had to assign him with somebody?" Annabeth grinned in a very Annabeth-is-concocting-something-evil way. "I'm hoping he was put with someone who won't put up with him personally." Whether a goddess or a monster or some girl, half-blood or otherwise, caught up in all this, she was hoping Dylan couldn't strut away from this at minimum with that kind of introduction.

...Piper shot one last look over her shoulder like, 911.

"I'd make a great 911 operator," Percy declared. "You can't out crazy my own shit, I'm great under pressure!"

"Phones, seaweed brain," Annabeth patiently reminded.

"Oh, yeah," he deflated, before rallying, "well, then IM's should get some kind of hotline to be directed to me."

"I will bring it up with her when I start on her temples," she grinned.

Jason finally couldn't help but laugh at the pair again. He might be in a miserable sinking puddle of quicksand he didn't feel like he'd get out of hearing about this, but it felt good for them to keep chattering as always. A reminder he wasn't alone to deal with this, they'd never let Percy feel that way. If he wanted to kick them all out and read it himself he knew they would respect that too.

...He offered his arm, like they'd go skipping inside together.

"Leo," Jason said, "you're weird."

"And you are a brutally honest person," Thalia praised.

"Had to get something good from you," he grinned. The muscles to do so still a little withdrawn, but less so every time he did it without forcing it.

"Yeah, you tell me that a lot...that means I can reuse all my old jokes. Come on!"

"Don't go in there Jason!" Nico said in mock horror, though his eyes going slightly wide said it wasn't all mock. "There's nothing worse than having to hear the same stupid joke seventy times and expected to laugh every time!"

"Common ghost problem?" Will asked mildly.

"Common minor-god problem," he frowned. "They all think they're hilarious pointing out some pun of their domain! The Olympian's are full of endless dad jokes and I've heard them all."

"You poor guy, I can't imagine the torture you've endured, and I thought I'd heard the worst of it," Percy looked tragically at him like he wanted to pull Nico to his side and shield him. Nico was pretty sure he wasn't even being that sarcastic.

He flipped him off for good measure anyways.

... They walked through the building,

"Wait, wait!" Alex demanded, waving his arms to have all attention. "It didn't say if you skipped inside with him, arm in arm!"

"We weren't off to see the Wizard of Oz," Jason rolled his eyes.

"Your loss," he sniffed, leaving no one in doubt Alex would be skipping in and out of the room at the next meal just for his own merriment.

... like he had to keep his hands busy at all times.

"Surely someone's going to make a prediction he's evil too? No one that smart can be all good," Magnus asked.

"What are you saying about yourself there Magnus? Cause we all know you don't have an evil bone in your body." Thalia smirked. Annabeth elbowed her, hard.

Magnus ignored her anyways when Annabeth shrugged. "If he isn't one of us, I'll eat my shoe. That's some ADHD squared if I've ever heard it."

"Not that that can't make him evil and in on this keep Jason out of his comfort zone scheme," Nico offered quietly.

Magnus was sorry he'd gotten his wish instantly at Nico's grave tone. They'd all heard him and didn't feel like arguing the point, it lingerd to heavily in the water around them. It was all to true just because he came off the most pleasant didn't mean he wouldn't be the first to backstab Jason.

... exhibits about the Grand Canyon and the Hualapai tribe, who owned the museum.

Annabeth tensed under Percy's arm, but one look at those storm gray eyes promised it was nothing he'd want to hear. He opened his mouth to ask anyway, but she was already shaking her head, eyes only on the book.

... wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a Halloween party.

Alex rubbed just under his eye, where only Magnus had noticed Alex had rubbed just a bit of charcoal black eyeliner around to really intensify his eyes. Magnus had the feeling Alex had some snide comment on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't begin to fathom where Alex would go with it, weather it be helpful advice on what those preppy girls could do to highlight their features instead of smothering them; or where they could stick that makeup. With Alex, it was quite likely he wasn't even close to guessing anyways, and that's why he was always watching him. Now it just made his lips tingle in excitement too.

...does your tribe run this place? Do you get in free if you do a rain dance?"

"I'm gonna be sick," Will's immediate scowl for this racist bullying promised his vomit would be sure to hit a specific target. Or Ipecac would be used on them perhaps. Jason believed either of him.

"I got you covered Will," Thalia promised, patting her quiver that appeared between her feet. They all knew about the fart arrows. Nobody wanted to know what else she had hidden in there that might affect mortals.

..."My dad's Cherokee. You'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."

"She has my sympathy and respect now though, monster or evil or not," Percy grinned, but in a way that made them decide not to mock him for that. He meant it.

"I'm still withholding judgment," Nico grumbled. Being persecuted could just as easily push her into helping some evil monster that would have it out for Jason. He was being extremely suspicious today, but Jason found he appreciated it as much as Percy's growing support of these two. He'd take all counsel he could get with open ears.

... she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction.

"Ha!" Percy threw back his head with laughter and nearly fell out of his seat as he continued.

Annabeth switched her amused smile between her boyfriend and Jason as she agreed, "always good to hear a universally shared thought."

"I rarely didn't laugh at Percy's frame of mind," Jason agreed with a shrug.

They were all secretly grateful Annabeth hadn't taken it as some kind of mild slight from either of them. That was just a fight nobody would live through.

...Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that's right. You never knew your mom."

Their theory she was a half-blood too felt confirmed there, but it also just made this situation all the more confusing really.

There was no sense in asking Jason what he'd originally set out on a quest to even wind up doing there, but Thalia found her throat growing more tight with tension the longer she listened too. Did Roman campers have the three questers rule? Was backup for him on the horizon? Had Jason struck out on his own to collect these kids for some reason and things were about to go awry?

...Piper ignored them, but Jason was ready to punch them himself.

"Eh?" Alex waved a hand around like he wasn't so sure about that.

"You? Not up for gender equality of a girl getting punched in her fat mouth?" Thalia asked in surprise.

"I wouldn't break anything," Jason agreed with all the confidence he had.

"Stab her, toss her out a window, find a way to rip out that cold dying brain cell, but I guess I do draw the line at you hitting a mortal, for something so petty," he said it casually enough, but there was something in that grin that made them all sure he wasn't really kidding.

Percy got it, as Alex waved Jason on without further ado. He still remembered the look in Alex's eyes when he, (or she?) had heard about Gabe. Unlike the others, the shock and sympathy, something about the way Alex had looked at him was a little to much understanding for what all the book didn't say.

In comparison, the same joke being placed upon this insignificant girl was not funny.

He might not remember Piper, or even who he was, but he knew he hated mean kids.

Thalia smiled without surprise and ruffled up his hair.

He pushed her away and muttered about her, but he was smiling too. He couldn't recall anyone being so affectionate with him, so why be annoyed by it?

...they'd be all bowing down to her and screaming, 'We're not worthy!'"

"Do we know any famous native Americans?" Will asked blankly. He was far behind on any pop culture fads.

"Um," Annabeth looked very blank with no clue, and she and Percy were the most likely answer.

"None come to mind," Percy agreed, "or at least, I don't think we're huge enough fans to know otherwise."

..."Look, I wish I did, but I don't even remember her, much less her dad."

"You're not going to be getting a lot of answers if you interrupt people Jason!" Alex said in exhaustion.

"I'm still a little more caught on the girlfriend part than really caring what her dad does anyways," he shrugged.

..."All right, cupcakes," Coach Hedge announced.

"What kind of cupcakes?" Percy grinned.

"Cupcake flavored," Thalia rolled her eyes, obviously intending to shove one up his nose next chance she got.

"You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it.

"Percy's not there, nobody was worried about that for once," Annabeth said with a straight face.

Percy didn't even bother to pretend to look wounded.

...hold the weight of seventy jumbo jets, so you featherweights should be safe out there.

"Should be?" Percy echoed unpleasantly. Thalia was turning a little green around the edges at just the thought. Then he waved his own hand at himself and said, "yeah, yeah, not there, for the sake of all, I heard."

The others suddenly weren't so comforted by that fact. For all they knew, Jason would have the same string of bad luck as him. He'd wound up down here in the exact same situation after all.

... try to avoid pushing each other off, as that would cause me extra paperwork."

"The bane of all," Will said, not without sympathy for whomever this was.

...The Grand Canyon spread before them, live and in person.

"Can't be that good of a show if they're forcing kids to learn about it," Magnus smirked.

"I'd love to start a mosh pit at the bottom of that thing," Alex said with one of those grins that made Magnus quickly look away or he'd be staring too long.

... horseshoe-shaped walkway made of glass, so you could see right through it.

It disturbed Jason immensely, as he touched the side of his head, how familiar that sounded without having anything to attach it to. The strangest feeling, of a limb being asleep that he'd swear had been there all along, tingling to awaken. He'd seen an aerial view like this, perhaps not this exact one....but he'd never been there, of this he was still absolutely certain.

An airplane perhaps? He didn't have the same reservations as Percy did about them. Yet that didn't feel right either, thinking of this expanse of world beneath his feet from a tiny window.

No, it was this view. Of looking past his shoes, down, down to the earth and feeling the blast of air and not the weight beneath his feet as his hungry eyes roamed over. Even this walkway just being described felt paltry to the sensation that phantom limb wanted to flex again.

... Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor.

"I didn't know there was a river down there! Thought it was all dry and dusty," Nico said in mild appreciation for this wonder of the world.

"Yep, there it is," Percy said resignedly. He'd have had to pull those gallons of water up to kill something and probably break the whole deck and half the canyon.

Wait, this wasn't going to be his fault for once! He fist pumped so enthusiastically he probably tossed a fishing boat or two about somewhere and the others couldn't even blame him for acting like a nut.

... like some crazy god had taken a knife to it the canyon walls.

"Do we know any crazy gods who would take a knife to a desert?" Thalia asked Annabeth without much hope. She was up on her lore the most along with her and none immediately came to mind.

"Not off the top of my head," Annabeth frowned, leaning forward in her seat, all at attention now that the first hint of who could have done this to Jason was being teased. Some new Roman god she'd get to hear a first hand account of!?

..."You're not going to throw up are you? 'Cause I should've brought my camera."

"Would the impact kill some poor innocent person at the bottom?" Magnus asked in disgust, vaguely aware of the rumor if you dropped a penny off the top of the statue of liberty it would kill a pedestrian below. Vomit probably didn't have the same density, but he wouldn't put it past Jason's stomach either.

"Who would be at the bottom of that thing?" Will asked blankly.

"I'm more worried about a poor animal than a person," Alex sniffed.

"I'm not going to throw up!" Jason finally interrupted with an important protest.

"Glad someone has faith in their stomach," Percy nodded seriously. "New roller coaster buddy," he smirked at Thalia.

"You can have him," she sniffed, "we'll be eating all the popcorn while you idiots get sunburned waiting in line." She gestured at Annabeth.

Percy looked torn on which option to defend now and Jason continued reading on loudly considering they weren't currently at an amusement park to have this out.

...He was shivering and sweaty, but it had nothing to do with heights.

"Well that's a relief," Thalia muttered. She hadn't wanted Jason to have that same problem as her by any misfortune.

...but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. Jason had a bad feeling.

"Um," the back of Jason's neck tingled unpleasantly. The first storm god that came to his mind was his own dad.

"Yeah, that about sums that up," Percy agreed with a nervous smile.

Thalia's stomach was churning with more pain than if someone was dangling her over the grand canyon. It's not like there wasn't a precedent against Zeus lashing out at his own kids for some imagined slight! She didn't have much more faith in Jupiter!

... Coach Hedge frowned at the storm like it bothered him too.

"Is that, is that good or bad?" Magnus could only pretend his voice didn't squeak because nobody looked at him like that wasn't a valid question.

"Depends," Percy muttered, the most experience with either outcome. Either Jason was making it himself as some sort of self-defense, or some monster or god was about to descend on the guy they'd just made an amnesiac sheep out of.

"Doesn't tell us anything more about Hedge either," Thalia grumbled. Nervous because he hadn't killed her brother yet? Bothered because the plan was fixing to kick in and he hadn't isolated him in time yet?

"We may have to cut this short, so get to work! Remember, complete sentences!"

Alex cleared his throat with delight, "And another thing-" then he stopped and crossed his arms.

They waited.

Then realized that was it. That was the joke.

Jason sighed and kept reading with the knowledge this was how Percy felt his entire trip down memory lane and feeling minisculely sorry he'd ever laughed at him.

... The inscription said something like ivlivs.

Jason had only pulled that coin out once or twice when he felt especially threatened. He'd been so excited to see that roman numeral on the side and been so sure he'd have a dozen answers in hand by now, like what that even meant!? It wasn't a number, his gut told him that, but he should know what that translated to without thinking twice!

He'd spent half the night in bed staring at it in the palm of his hand, excited for this moment it would appear. Who would give it to him, someone like Chiron? Would he get to know its historical importance? Had he possibly made it himself?!

None of the above! It was just as big a question as everything else going on!

"Dang, is that gold?" Leo asked. "You been holding out on me!"

"Wish I'd stop holding out on myself," Jason grumbled.

"At least you haven't threatened to dangle Leo over the edge to spill about your fake life," Percy offered, mostly kidding. "I might have been that kind of desperate if I was in your shoes."

"Thanks Percy, always glad to know what I shouldn't do," Jason chuckled.

... They didn't try very hard on the worksheet.

"Shocker," Percy didn't even sound sarcastic. "I'd have pegged you for a wise-girl and stress about at least making a C," Percy was gesturing at his girlfriend.

"I had other things not on my mind," Jason rolled his eyes. "Maybe if I could at least fill in the whole thing, like my last name, I'd care a bit more!"

"I'm back more distressed you apparently did not try spitting over the edge!" Thalia sighed. "Leo's going to ditch you if you refuse to have fun Jace."

Jason wanted to say good riddance, he didn't even know the guy who was roped into this fake world with him, but the words died on his tongue. Even having a fake friend in this strange environment was more than he'd had being dumped in here.

... "name three sedimentary strata you observe" or "describe two examples of erosion."

"Oooh, ooh," Nico waved his hand around, and Percy was already wondering why this hadn't leapt from teasing him to Jason when Nico turned to him and grinned, "Percy's mind!"

"Erosion at least implies he had one at one point," Annabeth pleasantly agreed. "It might still be buried under all that seaweed."

Percy made several silent gestures to Jason that were being ignored as they snickered.

...The little copter made it halfway across before it spiraled into the void.

"Well he's a child of Hephaestus," Annabeth said as if noting the weather. That kind of unbridled talent would be amazing when he got his hands on real tools. "Err, Vulcan," she corrected.

Percy sunk low in his seat, grateful no one had any smart comments for that as he pictured Beckendorf's face all over again. He hoped this guy made it out of Jason's life alive like his friend hadn't.

...Leo shrugged. "Would've been cooler if I had some rubber bands."

"How do you make that cooler?" Will asked with honest curiosity.

"Shooting the rubber bands as it careened to its doom for one," Alex grinned.

"Don't worry, rubber bands were the third thing added to the list," Thalia promised the others in her running list of things to keep out of Alex's hands during any emergency.

"Seriously," Jason said, "are we friends?" "Last I checked."

"I feel like the last time he double-checked on something it was his dinner burning," Magnus said in concern. He had been in the presence of to many ADHD guys lately to believe Leo wouldn't notice otherwise if someone was plopped down beside him and told this was his new bestie.

"Far more relevant than some guy following you around," Percy, the self-proclaimed king of ADHD, confirmed.

... "I don't recall exactly. I'm ADHD, man. You can't expect me to remember details."

That only just made them laugh all the harder. It could have been true! Jason's actually lasted the longest this time, finally feeling a bit of that warmth he'd been missing since the first page as he just laughed along with his friends at his mayhem he'd found himself in.

... "You think you just appeared here and we've all got fake memories of you?"

"Well when he puts it like that, it sounds ridiculous," but Nico's voice was nothing but sympathy. He'd never expected being thrown out of a hotel in the same fashion could ever be so relatable to someone else, but the slight grin on Jason's face as he glanced at him proved otherwise.

... had the place to themselves...maybe the weird weather had scared them off.

"Some places even close down just for school trips," Annabeth offered with faint notes of excitement only she could manage, Percy grinned.

Jason gave her a reluctant smile but asked with his usual curiosity, "better acoustics?"

"Better acoustics," she agreed with a firm nod, in one of those moments where nobody else was entirely sure what the joke was.

...when she saw Jason she gave him a look like, Throttle this guy for me.

"About that whole pushing someone over the edge thing..." Will said with less sympathy than before for Hedge's presumed paperwork.

"I didn't hear anything if you didn't," Jason agreed.

Jason motioned for her to hang on.

"How do you motion that exactly?" Alex asked, studying Magnus and Jason in turn as if expecting a new ASL sign.

Magnus made the universal pause motion and Jason just kind of vaguely waved his hand around, neither impressing Alex.

..."Did you do this?" the coach asked him.

"He knows," Thalia snapped at no one. Apparently she'd appointed herself guide to needlessly pointing everything out for Percy's benefit to make sure he was keeping up. Percy sighed and wondered if those fridges would cough up some duct tape.

...Hedge snorted. "Never seen you before today."

"At least he's being honest," Will seemed willing to hear this guy out now at least. Nico resisted the urge not to grab Will's shirt and haul him away when he wasn't even there.

...Jason was so relieved he almost wanted to cry. He was in the wrong place.

"Is it possible you just got on the wrong bus?" but Magnus knew his idea was in vain all the same. No demi-gods life had ever had such a simple explanation.

... we have an infiltrator, but you don't smell like a monster. You smell like a half-blood.

"He's a satyr!" Percy and Thalia said at the same time this time.

"Er, fawn?" Annabeth looked around at Jason for clarification.

He shook his head. "Your satyr's are nothing I've been around, I can say that much." He'd felt a blank space being drawn into his mind adapting to Grover as much as he had Annabeth. As much as part goat people didn't phase him, the way they lived in camp half-blood might as well be a foreign language. "Satyr," he confirmed.

"This, somehow gets weirder by the second then," Nico finally said into the confused silence that followed. How often did satyrs come across Roman kids?

..."Great," Hedge muttered. "You're being truthful."

"I swear if he forms an empathy link with you, I'll hunt you down in this and claim you're stealing my life," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Satyr's are very good at reading emotions too, he'd know if Jason was lying, link or not," Will reminded.

"It's just the crazy coincidence he'd bump into a satyr though!" Annabeth was clearly on Percy's side. "That means that Leo, perhaps even Piper, are Greek? Even if it's just one of them and the other is Roman? I can't decide which combination is the craziest! Chiron's never mentioned our paths crossing before, all this," she needlessly gestured about the room.

"What would we smell like to them?" Jason asked, sounding far more bemused than he should, as Percy and Annabeth looked closer to the verge of a mental meltdown any second. He'd been slowly processing his since the first few words and was trying to move on.

Nico laughed in delight at him. "Artichokes? We don't have Grover around to ask."

A fact Jason was clearly lamenting more as time went on rather than less.

... what was all that about monsters and half-bloods? Are those code words or something?"

"Code for, get the hell out of this as fast as you can," Percy rolled his eyes.

"To late, I'm sure," Jason sighed.

"We should have a secret code," Alex grinned.

"ASL kind of counts?" Annabeth grinned back. She'd had Magnus show her the first few letters of the alphabet over breakfast and had been trying to remember to practice them in the midst of all this mess. "Certainly not a lot of people in our circles know it."

Alex was clearly considering it, though nobody would be surprised to learn if he felt the need to persuade Hearth there needed to be a secret coded layer added later.

Hedge narrowed his eyes. Part of Jason wondered if the guy was just nuts.

"Nuts and berries like the rest of them," Will sighed. The name clicked with Gleeson Hedge, vaguely known around camp as one of the elder satyr's who'd made it out of being a searcher for Pan, and he made sure they all knew what he'd come back from around campfire stories. Though more on the nuts side than the berries. Thankfully he wasn't around much, he scared the new kids and preferred being out in the world anyways. Will had only seen him around a handful of times at best.

... it means trouble. Now I got to protect three of you rather than two.

This felt like all the confirmation they were going to get any time soon that Leo and Piper, or possibly Dylan or some other unnamed kid in this crowd, were Greek!?

But then, what was Jason doing there?! This situation was so entirely off the mark of what they'd expected going into this, they felt as blindsided as him. And this was supposedly in their realm of the world!?

Are you the special package? Is that it?"

"He certainly is special. I don't know who's going to vouch for the whole package though," Alex said with one of those grin's where they all knew he knew exactly what he'd said and he was just counting down for a reaction.

Jason kept reading loudly, that was all the reaction he was going to get. It was enough, as Alex snickered quietly to himself.

...So, are you the special package?"

What on earth was this traitorous life when that made some semblance of sense when nothing else going in his life did, Jason wondered. This sounded similar enough to when Grover had called in assistance to pick up Nico and Bianca. For all he knew Leo and some other kid were the next children of the big three!...wait, that was him. Maybe he was the package?

...a massive brain freeze —like his mind was trying to access information that should've been there but wasn't.

"Brain freeze," Percy nodded in solemn agreement. "That's the nice way to explain that awful feeling." The headrush, the stabbing pain, then it all thawing back to a normal throbbing only to get another swallow the very next paragraph.

"You going to make a club for this too?" Jason asked with a sad smile. "The Glacier book club?"

"Nico, you going to vote on this?" Percy asked mildly.

"Sure, dead things are cold, brain freeze works well enough. Let the motion be passed," he waved his hand in a vague official way. All three laughed lightly for a joke only they could. It made the others smile to smother the miserable sorrow for them having gone through it.

... We'll let the director figure things out."

"The director, being Chiron," Percy said with weary confidence. He wanted to be right and their activities director would take one look at Jason and have all the answers for him, but he knew that was wistful thinking.

"That feels like the best scenario," Jason said glumly. He doubted he'd be taken someplace safe with all the answers at any rate. That would be to easy!

And yet, wasn't that the worst case scenario too? To be taken to Camp where he knew he wasn't from? He'd almost rather be abducted by a monster with the miserable hope someone from his camp would come to rescue him to see where he was...and gods wasn't his life just getting more pathetic by the second when he'd rather be taken hostage!

... Hopefully nothing happens before—" Lightning crackled overhead.

"I think something's happening," Percy mock whispered pleasantly.

"Yeah, Zeus sneezed, run for cover," but Jason's blase' response was false and they all knew it.

... the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails.

"Watch them still get an F for this assignment because the weather ate their homework wasn't a good enough excuse," Annabeth said in sympathy. And a little to much experience in her tone.

"Focusing on the wrong things here, brainiac," Thalia sighed.

"I mean, that and oh no, Jason's about to be attacked," Annabeth agreed, "I'm just hoping Hedge sticks around long enough to be on their side too about this injustice."

..."Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!"

"It's a rare thing when you can say three correct sentences back to back like that," Alex smirked.

"I hope Leo slaps a patent on that thing soon," Magnus agreed.

"I thought you said this thing was stable!" ..."Under normal circumstances, which these aren't. Come on!"

It was of no comfort that the satyr was basically already saying they were doomed.

"I miss Grover," Percy sighed.

"What normal circumstances has Grover been in?" Jason could only mildly defend the satyr there and he already knew it.

"Very few, which is my point. He'd take this as calmly as a walk in the park after all he's been through!" Percy was already stoutly reminding barely before Jason had finished.

"Depending on when this is though, he's already been super busy. I don't think he's going to go back to picking up kids for a while, if ever again with all his duties," Annabeth sadly reminded him.

He nodded morosely as Thalia took the book from Jason with little hesitation. She gave Jason a brave smile and continued with far more confidence than she felt that her little brother was not about to die already...but without having any actual context for any of this madness she knew she was already flagging before she began.

PJOHOOPJOHOOPJOHOO

I'm not going to lie, I'm actually a huge fan of Nico/ Jason. There's just as many parallels to be drawn there! I really wish Jason had woken up on this bus with only Nico in his memories, and obviously only we the audience would have guessed that from description and would have spent the whole book going 'huh? What is Nico doing, why did he resurrect this guy? What did he do with Percy? Is he the villain of these books?!' But then it's revealed Hera took his memories!? Then we would have gotten to the next one and Percy only waking up remembering Annabeth and the seed is planted! But we keep going with the series and no answer is given until Jason adamantly states they have to save Nico from the Giant twins and doesn't explain to anybody why, even during his POV he's only concerned with making sure to get back in contact with the guy he woke up remembering so he can get some straight answers from his memory not having fully come back like Percy's did for some reason.

Then, dun, dun, dun, when they do rescue Nico, Jason is just inexplicably talkative to the guy, like overtly so, starts going out of his way to avoid Piper to keep trying to talk to him about why Nico is the only one he woke up remembering. And it's revealed through memory clips- they fell in love! During the gap of time where Nico discovered Camp Jupiter but before the two boys got swapped!

A second love triangle could have commenced where Jason has to choose between Piper and Nico just like Hazel was stuck in. RR could have set up a bisexual character from the beginning and it would have been just as awesome a reveal because it wouldn't have come out until after the Cupid scene still when Nico's first crush on Percy was exposed. Where is downside?!

I know I'm not the first person to have this idea, lots of Jasico fans have pointed out Hera is likely responsible for Jason loving Piper because of her image of the perfect couple, and it's even confirmed in Trials of Apollo the two don't work out so all the more reason Jason and Nico could have had a happily ever after in Camp Jupiter.

All this to say, this is canon only, and I love Solangelo just as much, (which would make writing this a little weird if I didn't) but if you catch hints of Jasico, just know you're not nuts. I have no plans for an AU story down the line, but I'm not saying no either.

I'm also just as big a fan of Leo/ Jason, but I have different reservations besides my canon only compliance I'll get into when Calypso shows up about why that won't be heavily explored in this series.

As to my promise for new characters and you all wondering where they are, have no fears, I have plans that will be revealed before you know it...

*I do intend to name the following chapters myself, in my own personal fun, though Alex will only occasionally offer said chapter titles in the text of said chapter when I think I can slip them in. I just really wanted to give Percy a rant about Jason not getting the same treatment he's been to set it all up, so this one got left 'blank.' If you have any suggestions for future chapter titles, including future books, I'm happy to hear them! I have a few selected already and just, cannot wait for this!