Mistake 2

Percy stood up, his eyes flashing with the power of the sea. He looked mad, terrifying. His pen was transformed into a sword and he was the ideal look of someone you didn't want to piss off.

Thor regarded him was mixed expressions.

"I don't care what he's done!" Percy shouted, "The only way you touch him is by going through me!"

Thor barely gave him a glance. His brought down his hammer with the might of a god, and blue lightning exploded through the ceiling. Jason gasped and threw his hands forwards retching at the pain that attacked his every muscle. He called his power, and forced the winds to push Percy out of the way. Jason wouldn't be able to cope if he had been responsible for Percy's death too.

Percy crashed into the bar tenders counter sliding over the mess of glass shards that ripped his formal tux even more. Annabeth let out a scream.

Jason hunched over, his side spitted blood in a pool. His white button-up was stained red.

Percy looked at Jason like he was crazy. "JASON!" He yelled.

Jason could only give him a saddened look. There was no way he was going to survive this. There was no outcome where Jason Grace lived. He was lucky he got away the first time he battled Thor.

He hoped his father was watching from Olympus, that he could see every second of this attack and he would regret it all dearly. Jason hoped with all his life that when he died, the Norse Gods would take on Olympus itself and burn his father's throne to the ground.

Percy struggled to get up, but he was knocked off his feet by some type of metal Frisbee. Annabeth whipped out her dagger and tried to run after him, but an arrow flung through the air exploding into a next that tripped her up and tangled her feet. She fell and her dagger slid across the floor.

"I deserve this." Jason whispered to himself, then he looked up at his Norse counterpart, "I deserve this, Thor! But they don't! Please Let them go! Tell your friends to stop attacking!"

Thor towered over him. He didn't say a word. Jason couldn't breath. His side warped with do much pain he could barely see straight.

"Please...." Jason whispered.

Thor crackled with electricity, which wouldn't exactly hurt Jason, but crushing his head with a metal hammer might do the trick.

The hammer came crashing down.

"HADES NO!"

All Jason saw was a blur of silver. Then the shockwave of power that knocked everyone backwards several feet. Jason fell again a table tipping the forgotten food and glasses over.

Percy landed in a plate of steaming pasta, as well as some high tech guy with a bow and arrow. Annabeth freed herself from the rope trap grabbing her dagger.

Thor looked murderous.

The only thing between him and Jason was a person. A girl with an electric spear and silver jacket.

"Hey." Thalia Grace said, coldly, "I'm the only one allowed to hit either of these two with lightning!"

"Get out of my way, Child of Zeus!" Thor bellowed, "I will have my revenge!"

"Geez, Superman," Percy snorted, "You get all the nutters."

"You'll have to go through me." Thalia readied her stance.

"That can be arranged!" Thor ran at her attacking with the strength of a Norse god. Jason's vision was blurred, all sound was dying out. Thalia was protecting him.

He didn't have any strength left to tell her he wasn't worth protecting. Jason's head slumped forward.

He closed his eyes.

And

Exhaled.

One

Last

Time.

(About one year ago....)

Jason was in a bad mood even before he was called to Olympus.

He was tired, and worn from searching. And he'd woken up with the sounds of his own screams this morning, and Piper was more distant that normal. Of course.

Today was that day.

The day Leo died.

Jason winced. He and Piper made a pact. They promised each other that they wouldn't stop searching for him. But it was getting harder and harder to keep moving on.

But Jason found himself on Olympus, admiring Annabeth's creations. The entire city sparkled and the palaces were so extravagant it seemed surreal.

Minor gods and goddess walked about talking or playing or doing other godly stuff. Jason walked into the throne room, promptly on time. He couldn't be anything less, as the son of Jupiter and former leader of the Roman army.

Jupiter was waiting for him, towering in his throne. It seemed weird to have his Roman aura in the Greek headquarters. He didn't say a thing while Jason knelt respectfully at his father's feet.

"Rise." Jupiter said.

Jason cautiously got back up, winding why he'd been called to Olympus. Usually for a child of the big three it meant something bad had happened or was going to.

He had no idea how bad.

"Jason, my son," Jupiter started, "I have a quest for you."

It took everything Jason had not to scream. He had to be joking right? Not today!

"I want you to kill someone for me."

"What?!" Jason sputtered, "Are you crazy?!" Okay in retrospect it probably wasn't the best thing he could've said to the king of the gods, "Father, I-"

"Silence, foolish boy!" Jupiter snapped, "These people are our enemies. They will attack us, and many will fall! The person I want dead is the leader, and he goes by the name of Odin."

"Odin?" Jason said his eyes widening, "Like Father Odin, king of the Norse gods?"

Jupiter waved it off, "Yes, yes, I want him dead! Without him the Norse world with crumple and the Romans will live forever!"

Jason didn't even bother pointing out that he was kinda in a Greek city. "That'll start a war!" He protested, "You have no proof that they will attack us! But if we kill Odin there will be bloodshed!"

"Yes." His father agreed, "Norse bloodshed."

"I-I can't!" Jason stuttered, "I won't start a war!"

"Do you need proof?!" Jupiter yelled, "Here is proof!" He waved his hand and a misty screen appeared, depicting a tall built man with long blond hair talking to an assortment of mortals in strange outfits,  "That is Thor, Odin's favored son. He has made alliances with the mortals! They will attack together! Our only chance is to strike before them!"

Jason stumbled back, "I'm not an assassin!" He yelled, "I can't kill-"

"You are my son!" Jupiter stood up, the cavernous room shaking like an earth quake, "You will do as I say!"

Jason backed up more. He was shaking his head. There was no way he could do it. Never. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

"If you refuse, I will disown you!"

"I'm fine with that!" Jason yelled back, "No father would command his son to kill someone!" Jason wasn't sure where this brazen bravery was coming from. The air around him buzzed, with electricity, all too much like that one time back in the Giant War when Jason had stupidly more or less called his father an idiot in front of the entire council of the gods and the fates.

The sky thundered, and the air smelled suspiciously like electrocuted birds.

Just his luck. When normal kids have arguments with their parents, their parents yell or ground them. When Jason gets into an argument with his dad, Jupiter makes fried pigeon.

Well Jupiter could kill every last bird on the planet. Jason wasn't going to kill the king of the Norse Gods. He couldn't. The Fates would never let him right? He wasn't a murderer. He wasn't going to start a war.

"I'll kill them!" Jupiter roared. "I'll kill them all!"

Jason thought he was still talking about the birds.

"All the demigods!" Jupiter thundered, "I will kill everyone at that pathetic camp, and then all the ones in the Roman city. They will die!"

Jason couldn't believe what he was hearing. His blood was cold, his entire body forgot how to operate.

"All of the Seven! The hunters! The Amazons! I will crush that Aphrodite girl you love like a twig!"

Jason's throat dried. Piper. He was threatening to kill Piper. A life without Piper...Jason couldn't think of it, not anymore. He loved her. More than anything. Losing her would be like losing his arms, and legs and heart and...

Everything.

Jupiter raged on, electricity crackling in the air. In his hands his cylinder Master bolt appeared like he was ready to smite everyone as is.

Where were the other gods? Where was anyone else? Someone needed to stop this! Jason backed father away, until his foot hit the edge of the hearth in the middle of the Throne room. The flames were low almost nonexistent. Jason was no match for the king of the gods. There was nothing he could do to stop Jupiter.

Jason's life was flashing before his eyes, every single moment he spent with other demigods, from the times he was with Thalia in their apartment as little kids, to entering the fifth cohort, to his quests, his memory loss, time with the Seven...All of it blinked by him. Everyone was in danger.

Fear wrapped around him so tightly it was like he was being suffocated.

"STOP!" Jason yelled.

Jupiter froze.

Jason felt his knees go weak. He was breathing heavily and he wasn't sure why.

"Don't..." Jason said, he felt a tear go down his cheek.

"I'll do it." He whispered, so quietly it was almost impossible to hear, "I'll do it. Just... don't hurt anyone."

Even as he said he knew it was the biggest mistake he'd ever make.

(About a year in the future...again)

The fighting was stopped by the scream.

It was so shocking that even Thalia who was literally crackling with lightning felt like she'd gotten zapped. Percy froze his sword in mid arc of fending off arrows. The arrow guy, actually dropped his next arrow after hearing it.

Annabeth and the red head waitress paused in their combat Annabeth panting, and the red head leaning against an overturned table tiredly.

The guy with the shield got to his knees wiping blood off his jaw from where Percy had punched him. Some random guy with a suit of armor powered down his blaster shooting hands looking away from Thalia who he'd been targeting.

Thalia looked about to cry. She froze at the sight of Jason, his pale body unmoving, and horror over came her. "No..." She whispered, "NO!"

Even Thor looked surprised.

Piper knelt over him screaming. Her voice, which was rich with emotions felt like a dagger plugging into everyone's chest. Her head was bowed almost touching Jason's, and her grip on him was ridged. Blood crusted over the wound on her forehead, but Piper didn't show any signs that she'd been passed out recently.

"JASON!" She wailed, like all her happiness, everything that gave her the will to live had been taken away. "Jason...." Her voice cracked so audibly it was like listening to her heart break, "Don't...leave me..."

But he was already gone.

Piper threw her head up and screamed again at the ceiling. Her voice was terrifying, everyone was swamped with emotions, overwhelming sadness, misery, pain so bad that even Percy and Annabeth fell over. Thalia tossed away her spear, and scared to her brothers side. Tears flooded her features, worse than when she'd heard the news about Luke. She clung to Jason like she could give him strength.

"Jason come back to me!" Piper screamed, "Come back! I talked you back from death once, you son of a Hydra! You promised me, Jason!"

Annabeth knelt and cried into her hands her golden curls covering her face. Percy was frozen on the ground silently weeping his green eyes unfocused. It felt worse than anything he'd ever experienced. He'd gone through Tartarus and came out alive. But he'd had Annabeth. Percy didn't know what he'd do without her.

Piper didn't know what she'd do without Jason.

"Come back..." Piper choked, "Come...back..."

His body was still mostly warm like he was sleeping not dead. But the floor was slick with his blood, his hand still holding his side and his shirt ruined. She'd spent so long....so long planning this night. Getting every detail perfect. He promised it would be the night of her life. So when did she wake from this Nightmare?

Piper's chest constricted like someone had wound coils around her so she could barely breath. She glared up at the towering figure of the man or god or whoever it was that had threatened her Jason. The guy with the blood red cloak, and his friends who ruined her night. 

Her eyes held uncontrollable Rage.

"I WILL KILL YOU!" She screamed. So much pain and anger was in her voice that the man actually stepped back, "I WILL KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A -"

Piper didn't care that she sounded crazy. She didn't care that she was a mess. She cared that her boy had died. She'd been knocked unconscious and he'd died. She just wanted one night with him. One night...

She launched a the god or whoever he was her dagger in her hand. Thalia intercepted it yelling at her to calm down. but it was like her senses had been numbed. Piper wasn't listening. She didn't care what Thalia had to say. She had to kill this man. Thalia held her back as she struggled, her voice was hard.

The man looked at her blankly, like he didn't have any remorse. He didn't even care that Jason was dead. He turned away.

Piper broke out of Thalia's grip elbowing her in the face, she bounded faster than mortally possible and she shoved her blade as far and as deep as it could go. The man screamed in agony. His friends yelled. 

"Thor!" The guy with the shield slammed it into Percy's head and he fell unconscious, Annabeth kicked her heel into the red heads stomach and she fell into the guy scrambling for arrows. The metal amour guy shot at her with his repulser beams but Thalia swiped them away with her spear.

Up on Olympus, Jupiter looked down at the projection of chaos. His son had died, his daughter was fighting for her and her friend's lives, Thor Odinson with dying with a Greek demigods knife in his chest. The one thing his son had fought so hard to stop-- by refusing to kill Odin, by getting caught on Asgard chickening out of a murder, by fighting Thor and gravely injuring one of the Norse's friends on accident, by laying low for almost a year....

It was here.

Finally.

Nothing could stop this War.

Jupiter grinned.