History rewrite
May. 23rd, 2015 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roman_handsThe Grace family started off like many demigod families. Zeus (Greek aspect of the god) fell for the TV star Beryl Grace, had a child with her, and that child would grow up to be Thalia Grace. Seven years after Thalia was born, Ms. Grace managed to entice the god a second time, but it was not Zeus. He was in his Roman aspect at the time, so Ms. Grace's second child was born on July 1st 1994 as a Son of Jupiter instead. Two demigod children from the same household but with different godly parentage aspects (Zeus vs. Jupiter) has never been heard of before the Graces. Hera was not pleased by the development at all, since the Big Three (Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon) were already under oath at the time to not have any more demigod children. On top of that, Hera knew that it had been the way of things to keep Greek and Roman demigods ignorant of each others' existence as a gambit to keep peace, since the old Greece and Rome of course had warred with each other but the gods themselves also experience a kind of hard break between their two aspects akin to Dissociative Identity Disorder if two people in close proximity try to think of the gods in different aspects. To prevent that specifically if Thalia and Jason grew up together, Juno made Jupiter forfeit Jason's life to her instead as his patron deity. Jupiter even went so far as to name Jason after Juno's favorite mortal.
Ms. Grace was then ordered to abandon Jason at the Wolf House when he was two years old, after which Thalia was left to believe her brother died. The Wolf House (in Glen Ellen, California) is where all Roman demigods have to begin their training, under the mentorship of Lupa, the same sentient wolf of legend who trained Remus and Romulus. "Conquer or die. This is always our way." Lupa is the gatekeeper for the Roman version of Camp Half-Blood; only the demigods she deems worthy are led on the 50+ mile trek from the Wolf House to New Rome, at Camp Jupiter near San Francisco. But even at the age of 2, she obviously gave him some sort of test he passed. Sometime in the year after Jason was separated from his mother he arrived at Camp Jupiter, was claimed by his father Jupiter, and in the tradition of the Camp, baby Jason was tattooed with a specific design all Roman demigods receive. The tattoo includes: the sigil of his parentage (in this case an eagle), below that "SPQR" meaning "Senātus Populusque Rōmānus" (the motto of the old Roman empire), and one vertical line per year at Camp (and in the Legion and claimed) to resemble something like a barcode. Jason describes being treated like a prince in waiting at Camp Jupiter even from a very young age, which is probably why he was given a hash mark tattoo for every year he lived at Camp Jupiter, even before he was old enough to be of any service to the Legion of New Rome.
It's not clear how Jason was cared for before he was old enough to dress and feed himself, because he never alludes to any foster parents or even a mentor within Camp Jupiter that showed him how things were done. We don't even know who told him his full name - if he arrived at Camp Jupiter around age 3, fresh from the wilds, it's possible Lupa taught it to him as his first words, or Juno in a vision. Every time he thinks about parentage, it's always in the context of his mother Beryl Grace abandoning him at the Wolf House or his absent father Jupiter, never any conflicting ideas with other figures at Camp Jupiter, not even the praetors before him. However, he definitely knew his last name before his memories were taken at the start of Lost Hero.
Either way, Jason is the youngest known demigod to join the Legion, the army that defends a literal city concealed from mortal eyes by the mist. Called New Rome, that city is where Roman demigods are allowed to retire after at least five years of service in the Twelfth Legion. There are only 5 cohorts in the Twelfth Legion at Camp Jupiter, less than in ancient times; cohorts are mostly divided up to balance out the total number of campers across the five cohorts, and not at all by parentage in sharp contrast to Camp Half-Blood. Most children are assigned a cohort if they don't come with any letters of introduction or recommendation for a specific cohort, such as being a Legacy child (one ancestor is a demigod but the rest are mostly mortal) and wanting to be in the same cohort as their demigod ancestor. Once Jason was old enough, somewhere between 5 and 8, he was actually allowed to choose a cohort and formally start Legionnaire warrior training instead of being a kind of Camp Jupiter mascot. He was already feeling "chafed" by Roman traditions and being in the spotlight.
Jason quickly proved to be a prodigy though, and earned respect too because he went on to serve 12 years in the Legion, all of it culminating in Jason becoming one of only two praetors for the entire Legion. You can only become a praetor one of two ways: get elected praetor on the Feast of Fortuna, or be raised on a shield after an honorable battle. Jason alludes to his praetorship being granted through election, while Percy's in Son of Neptune and Frank's in House of Hades was thanks to proof of honorable combat, and this says a lot about Jason's trajectory in life *if* he can embrace it, addressed more in the Personality section. He is a powerful swordsman with a strict discipline that made him that way, but it's not where his strengths lie.
Rising through the ranks at Camp Jupiter did not entail a lot of glamor and Jason preferred it that way. As a Centurion, Jason and the Fifth Cohort often got the unpopular chore of clearing out basilisk nests under the temples in New Rome. Quest Highlights for Jason's early career in the Legion include (with a team from Camp Jupiter each time) fighting flesh-eating ghouls in San Bernadino, seeking the aid of Aeolus in the hunt for the Trojan sea monster then eventually killing it, and helped Bacchus (Dionysus's Roman aspect) find a missing leopard in Sonoma (aka Wine Country, Northern California), and in summer of 2009 salvaging imperial gold from the CSS Hunley in Charleston, South Carolina (in preparation for the war against Kronos).
*THE LAST OLYMPIAN (Book 5 of 10 in the Percy Jackson series)
This book takes place in August 2009.
Paralleling the events of this book, when Percy Jackson and Camp Half-Blood were fighting Kronos on Mount Olympus, Jason and his co-commander Reyna led the First Legion in an attack on Mount Tamalpais in California, Kronos's stronghold and where the remainder of his forces not attacking Olympus were. During that battle, Jason single-handedly defeated the Titan Krios through a combination of swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat.
*THE LOST HERO (Book 6/10)
This book takes place in December 2009. Percy Jackson goes missing, and 3 days later Jason shows up to begin the book.
Jason's memories of Camp Jupiter were stolen by Hera and he woke up in Arizona with Leo and Piper having false memories of time with him at the Wilderness School. Their protector, Coach Hedge (satyr), tried to defend them from a ventus (wind spirit), but was carried off for his efforts. Jason managed to save Piper by flying, startling them both. Then Annabeth arrived to take the three demigods back to Camp Half-Blood, revealing that Percy Jackson had gone missing. At Camp Half-Blood, Chiron (Activities Director, centaur) deepened the mystery by saying that Jason should have been dead. Hera appeared to him to tell him he must free her in order to get his memories back, and that she was his patron, given to her by his father as a peace offering. Chiron and Rachel (mortal prophet) declare that Jason must lead the quest to free Hera, and he chose to take Piper (daughter of Aphrodite) and Leo (son of Hephaestus) with him. After Leo got them a ride - Festus the giant gold mechanical dragon - they set off.
Per Annabeth's advice, they sought out Boreas in Quebec City, who was the first person to hint that Jason was more Roman than just his ability to speak Latin and possessed of an SPQR tattoo. Despite Boreas's daughter Khione's machinations, they were advised to go Chicago in search of wind spirits. Once captured, they would take them to Boreas's master Aeolus, Master of the Winds, as an appeasement to both wind gods and to gain insight on where Hera was being caged. They got waylaid in Detroit by Ma Gasket the Cyclops, but eventually made it to Chicago, where Piper had to charmspeak both Jason and Leo out of a spell by Medea, a human sorceress who'd been resurrected by Gaea and took a department store as her new base of operations. Carrying two giant cages - one of wind spirits and the other of a frozen Coach Hedge - eventually took its toll on Festus the dragon and they crash-landed in Omaha, Nebraska. Leo salvaged only Festus's head from the crash and they took refuge in what turned out to be King Midas's new mansion. Jason defeated Midas by summoning lightning for the first time since his memory loss. Lycaon the first werewolf cornered the four as they were recovering from Piper and Leo being turned to gold by Midas, but he was run off by the Hunters of Artemis. Finally reunited with his sister Thalia, he got a few answers to his past before they were led to Aeolus's place moored at Pike's Peak.
Aeolus was too volatile and not appeased by their gift, but their new friend Mellie (an aurae) blasted them to safety at a cafe near Mount Diablo, where Enceladus was waiting for Piper to lead her friends into a trap. She'd confessed to being a spy for Enceladus the Giant already, so they were mainly focused on getting Piper's dad back. After some initial attempts, Jason squared off against Enceladus alone, but knew he needed the aid of a god to truly defeat the Giant. He prayed for the aid of his father and got a bolt of lightning in answer, but it destroyed his blade Ivlivs. Piper's dad was too traumatized by his ordeal for Piper to want him to live that way, so she used a potion from Medea's department store to make him forget about being captured by Enceladus. Coach Hedge offered to escort him back to his home while the three demigods went to rescue Hera at the Wolf House, the same place all Roman demigods begin their journey with Lupa.
Khione was waiting for them, but Leo fought her off while the Hunters of Artemis - including Thalia - faced a pack of Lycanthropes and Earthborn. Jason's blade was broken, but he still challenged the King of the Giants, Porphyrion, while Leo and Piper worked to free Hera from her cage. Jason was very outmatched, but it bought the time they needed and Porphyrion retreated when Hera was freed. Unfortunately Jason didn't understand he was supposed to shield his eyes from Hera's true form due to his memory loss, and fell comatose on the ground. Piper actually managed to use her charmspeak to order Jason to wake up, which he did and lived to tell the tale. Back at Camp Half-Blood, Hera appeared as Juno to explain to Jason that there had to be an exchange of leaders to bridge the gap between Romans and Greeks. To help him in the coming battles, she gave him a gladius. Jason remembered enough of his past to tell the rest of Camp Half-Blood that he came from a Roman equivalent of Camp Half-Blood, which was where Percy would likely be, but also without his memories, same as Jason. After Leo revealed Bunker 9 to the Camp, they decide to help Leo build a ship called the Argo II which would fly through the air to Camp Jupiter in California with with Annabeth, Piper, Coach Hedge, and of course Leo.
*THE SON OF NEPTUNE (Book 7/10)
Percy Jackson went missing three days before the start of Lost Hero. He spent this book recovering his memories, defending New Rome from a strike force of Gaea's monsters, and befriending Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque in the process. For Jason, this book mostly provides backstory to New Rome and Camp Jupiter and Jason's life there, which has been summarized in the rest of the History section. At the end of this book, the Feast of Fortune happens on June 24th. The next day Leo's ship the Argo II descends over New Rome for Camp Half-Blood's mission of peace with Jason on board along with the other three Greek demigods, Coach Hedge, and Festus as the figurehead and AI for the ship.
*DEMIGOD DIARIES: LEO VALDEZ AND THE QUEST FOR BUFORD (Side Stories Book #2)
This story takes place on Christmas Eve 2009 in the span of an hour, after 2 weeks*** of Leo working on the Argo II.
*** Even though the text claims that Leo has been working on the Argo II for two months, the rest of the timeline (and the fact that this story takes place on Christmas Eve) make that impossible. Two weeks, however, would closely fit correctly in the timeline.
*THE MARK OF ATHENA (Book 8/10)
This book begins on June 25th 2010.
The Argo II arrives and peace talks begin. A feast is prepared while talks of the Quest that the Seven Demigods of the Prophecy (including Jason) happened. Ella the Harpy interrupted the festivities with a prophecy, but Annabeth distracted Octavian so he wouldn't suspect and Leo suggested Octavian could come check out the Argo II so as to see they meant no harm. Then, the rest of the group turned their attention to exploring New Rome. Jason left to show Piper around New Rome, then chaos broke out when Leo (possessed by an Eidolon spirit) fired the Argo II's weapons on New Rome. Trying to calm the crowd and protect Piper at the same time, Jason took a brick to the head and goes comatose. He was out for several hours, waking when the ship was moored in Salt Lake City.
Jason woke up just in time for the Seven to have dinner together and what they planned to do once Leo repaired their ship, which the others were out gathering supplies for earlier that day. In particular, both Jason & Percy tried to take the Head chair, but ceded it to Annabeth. Jason took Piper's hand and reassured her that Gaea must have been the one driving the camps apart, not Leo by his own choice. Hazel explained that they met Nemesis that day, and the goddess said they had 6 days until Nico died and Rome was destroyed, which prompted Jason asking if she meant ancient Rome or New Rome. Hazel was pretty sure it was ancient city. Annabeth cited Reyna's praetor story about Athena driving the camps apart, and Leo & Hazel agreed Nemesis said something similar. Naturally, Percy (still technically a praetor) turned to Jason for the answer, since he'd been praetor longer. His fingers turned clammy in Piper's hands. "I... I'm not sure. I'll give it some thought." Jason didn't respond to Percy pressing him, insisting to Piper via eye contact that they'd talk later about it.
The next morning when the ship arrived in Topeka, Kansas, Jason went with Piper and Percy to look for Bacchus at mile marker 32. Percy summoned Blackjack and Jason summoned Tempest, the storm spirit he tamed at the Wolf House. This cemented Percy & Jason's rivalry. Bacchus found them, and even though Jason tried to placate Bacchus and recalling the favor he did for the god, Percy just picked at Bacchus by calling him Dionysus. Bacchus took to Piper better. She tried to convince him to help them fight Ephialtes and Otis, but what he did tell them to do was get to Atlanta and ask Phorcys for help before suddenly fleeing the area. He sensed Gaea.
Then Jason was put under the control of an Eidolon spirit himself, and made to attack Percy who was similarly possessed. Gaea thought she could get Piper to make a choice between the boys, but she knocked out Jason using her charmspeak and then used it on Blackjack to knock out Percy. Back on the ship, the boys continued their rivalry by posturing over who really would have killed who. During the same meeting about how to safely get to Rome and realizing Gaea wanted two demigods' blood (one male, one female) to water the stones of Rome and awaken Gaea, Piper noticed that there were a total of three Eidolons: the two in Percy and Jason, plus the one that possessed Leo. They discovered then that Leo really didn't fire on New Rome on purpose, and Piper willed the three spirits out of the boys' bodies.
That night Percy & Annabeth slept in the stables together. In the hubbub of the morning, June 27, Percy told the group he had vision of Nico in a jar surviving only on pomegranate seeds. Hazel explained that Nico was in a death trance, which was how he was still alive at all. Some of the Seven were still unsure that they should even rescue Nico at all, Leo wondering if it was a trap and Jason siding with Leo in regards to Nico's trustworthiness. Percy even agreed that Nico had done some shady things in the past. After Hazel stormed out insulting Jason's leadership and fairness as "the great praetor she always looked up to," he became quite bitter towards Percy trying to take charge. That day, Percy, Frank, and Coach Hedge sought out Phorcys in Atlanta. They got Phorcys talking about Ephialtes and Otis's powers as the Anti-Dionysus, and Phorcys also said there was a map in Charleston to show them the Mark of Athena. Jason was the one to suggest a place called the Battery, since he knew the city; he'd quested with Reyna there the year prior. He also took the opportunity to apologize to Hazel for speaking without thinking about Nico's trustworthiness. Jason nominated Leo and Frank to go with him to the museum where the CSS Hunley was kept, since he knew the layout. The others (the three girls and Percy) went to the Battery, where they met Aphrodite and encountered a Roman strike force including Octavian.
In order to escape the Roman attackers, Jason and Percy combined their powers to create a massive storm. By June 29th, they were sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and the Argo II was ambushed by a Skolopendra because Hazel pulled Leo into a memory of Sammy Valdez, Leo's great-grandfather. The attack - in which Jason used his powers in the air with gusto - sent Leo, Hazel, and Frank overboard, where they discovered a camp of mer-demigods. Jason flew all around the ship putting out fires from Leo's gambit before he sunk, then rested until the trio returned. Annabeth explained what the Mark of Athena was - a fiery owl symbol leading Athena's children to the goal. Jason admitted then that he was scared of telling Annabeth about what he suspected the same goal was, due to the scope of what the praetors believed. They both believed the Athena Parthenos, a 40' statue, was at the end of the trail of the Marks of Athena. The theory was that the statue was carted off by Romans to break the Greek spirit, Jason explained. In that moment, Jason finally trusted Annabeth more. The group broke to clean and repair the ship, Jason and Piper taking the lower deck and stables. Jason was handy enough to fix a door, oiling saddles, etc., just like doing chores back at Camp Jupiter as a lower rank in the Fifth Cohort. Between two tasks, Jason reassured Piper that she was strong and beautiful in her own non-Roman/non-Reyna way, and he liked her that way.
On June 30th, they arrived at the Pillars of Hercules, the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and "The Ancient Lands" where Roman demigods had been forbidden to tread. Hercules himself stood on an island waiting for the group, so they decided to send Ambassadors. Jason thought, being half-brothers, he could talk to Hercules better, and of course Piper wanted to go in case her charmspeak could be useful - especially after the incidents in Topeka. Hercules was amicable right up until he learned they were questing for Hera. He sent them to retrieve a horn from Achelous, who turned out to be a river god that wanted Piper for a wife. Piper saved Jason and cut off Achelous's horn, but refused to give the horn back to Hercules. It became a cornucopia and Piper used it to bury Hercules in food, giving the Argo II just enough time to get by Hercules without a real fight.
Jason then spent so much energy creating storms to protect the Argo II, he was worn out by the time the pirate Chrysaor attacked. Percy managed to trick Chrysaor and sunk his pirate treasure as an offering to Bacchus. They Seven arrived in Rome on July 1st and split up. Frank, Hazel, and Leo went to pinpoint Nico's location while Percy escorted Annabeth as far as he could before she had to start her solo quest for the statue. While those five were out, Piper and Jason guarded the Argo II with Coach Hedge, eventually deciding to have a picnic to avoid the satyr. Piper's cornucopia spat out a birthday cake and Jason admitted it was his birthday. Piper also got Jason talking about what it was like only being part of a small group of Seven instead of a Legion, where Jason had been elected a Leader as far back as he could remember, even before he was made praetor. Standing among equals, he felt like a failure. "I've spent most of this trip knocked out or helpless." Which wasn't true in the least, but even 33% of the trip still felt like "most" to Jason, who'd become accustomed to shouldering so much pressure through the years, just like Hercules. He went so far as to say he didn't deserve Piper, but they kissed to bury that topic, then Percy came running towards the ship.
Piper revealed her recent visions in her blade, then set off with Percy and Jason to save Nico - without waiting for Leo, Hazel, and Frank to return. Their search led them to a Nymphaeum, where a nymph called Hagno had gone insane with their water diverted from the chamber. Hagno and her eight compatriots, who were so old they'd watched over Zeus's birth, filled the room with water and started drowning the three demigods - exactly as Piper had foreseen, in spite of Percy being usually un-drownable as a son of Poseidon. The nymphs were draining their demigod powers, hence even Percy drowning in the water. Piper was inspired to channel their remaining emotions into her cornucopia, filling the Nymphs with positive thoughts and clean water at the same time. The Nymphs were healed and restored the trio to their full strength in thanks, then told them where they could find the twin gods and their captured Angel aka Nico di Angelo.
The trio distracted Otis and Ephialtes long enough with talk of event planning like a theater troupe's performance to hear about Gaea's forces' plans for her rise in a month. When fighting broke out, Jason went after Otis. At one point Jason saw Piper get knocked out by the fireworks he used to defeat a hydra while Piper was defending Nico, and Jason rushed to her aide. Then he deflected Otis's massive spear at Ephialtes, turning him to dust, and a piece of the ceiling crushed Otis. They weren't permanently dead because they needed the help of a god, and Bacchus appeared (placated thanks to the offering) but wanted to be entertained first. Jason and Percy agreed to fight together to entertain him, and returned the two to dust a second time, but it wasn't enough for Bacchus until the Argo II showed up and blasted the twins as well. With his help, they defeated the twins and saved Nico.
The six demigods listened to Nico's story briefly as he recounted being overwhelmed by Gaea's forces in Tartarus. Percy insisted that they would just have to close the Doors of Death from the mortal side, which Nico said was in Epirus. With all of the plotting, Percy realized they didn't have their plotter back with them yet. They had to find Annabeth and Bacchus had given them a clue before he left. Annabeth actually succeeded in defeating Arachne and locating the Athena Parthenos all by herself. What the Seven demigods + Nico & Coach Hedge didn't consider was just how heavy the statue was plus Arachne. The floor cracked, then the statue started to fall into the hole and the group rushed to secure it, with Jason flying around per Leo's directions. He and the others didn't even notice until it was too late that Annabeth had fallen into the hole in the floor, a hole leading straight to Tartarus, and that Percy chose to fall with her. Jason felt guilty that he wasn't aware enough to fly down and save them, but Nico insisted the force of Tartarus would have pulled him in too. Their only choice is to follow Percy's last request of Nico - to lead the group to Epirus, and meet him and Annabeth on the other side of the Doors of Death.
*THE HOUSE OF HADES (Book 9/10)
This book begins on July 5th 2010.
After losing Annabeth & Percy to Tartarus, the remaining six demigods (five of The Seven plus Nico) plus Coach Hedge were trying to get to Epirus to meet Percy & Annabeth on the other side of the Doors of Death. They reached Bologna but were waylaid by two monkey-dwarf thieves. Leo caught them and Jason arrived at the top of the tower while flying to help convince the two thieves to do as they said for not killing them. Leo ordered the two to sabotage the Roman army approaching New York for as long as they could, while the Argo II gang returned a book from their stash to the god of agriculture Triptolemus in Venice. To appease "Trip," Frank had to defeat all of the katoblepones in the city, and in doing so earned the blessing of his father, Mars. Frank had to do that to get Nico restored from being a plant and Hazel healed, as she was poisoned by the katoblepones.
One day, an arrow is shot into the ship with a note saying that Sciron the bandit would take their treasure or their lives. Jason and Hazel chose to parlay with him, since Hazel assumed she could summon treasure to appease him. There, Jason tried to come up with a plan, but Hazel's was better: she used the Mist to make Sciron see both demigods being kicked off the cliff, but Jason just hovered and waited for Hazel in case she was kicked off too. Instead, she was only kicked a few feet and instead Sciron was knocked off into the mouth of his own monster. After a dream vision featuring Reyna, Jason urged Leo to steer for Split, Croatia where they could leave a note for Reyna to find and hopefully get a powerful magical object to aid them. Nico volunteered to go since it was a tomb and Jason chose to go with him in a show of solidarity.
They ended up meeting Favonius, Roman god of the west wind, who told them a story of how he had a male lover Hyacinthus that he fought with Apollo over. That got Jason thinking about homosexual relationships, and after a moment he decided that what Favonius was trying to communicate in his story was more important than the fact that he'd had a male lover. That was important because when they met Cupid, he wasn't interested in Jason, claiming that he'd already found true love, but Nico had a secret to reveal and Cupid said the only way to defeat him was to face him. Bullied and coerced with visions (shared with Jason) of his past, Nico confessed that the reason he left Camp Half-Blood and spent so much time alone was because he'd had a crush on Percy, not Annabeth as had been rumored, even after he'd failed to keep his sister Biance safe. Jason resolved to convince Nico that he, and the other demigods, were not going to push him away just because he felt that way about boys, but he also promised that it was Nico's choice of when and how to reveal that information. (He also later showed he's in the "It's not like you have a choice, it's just who you are" camp of respect for gay people.) For the time being, they were just glad to have Diocletian's scepter for the trouble.
Unfortunately Khione found them again. Leo got a special punishment of being flung all the way Ogygia, home of Calypso. Back on the ship, Jason was frozen in place along with the others, leaving Piper alone to fend off the Boreads. She managed to wake Festus the dragon with her charmspeak - and even Leo never understood how she did it - but his fire sent the Boreads running and Piper got to keep a new blade. With Festus damaged and Leo gone, Jason suggested they visit Auster, Roman god of the south wind, for help getting to Epirus. With several days of being denied audience with Auster, Jason had time to think about his being split between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter and try to gain Nico's trust a bit more.
Finally Jason got to see Auster and it took all of his diplomacy to deal with the capricious and forgettable god. It turned out he needed the audience with Auster more than he anticipated. The god of the winds saw in Jason a similarity to his own children - that he was drifting between Greek and Roman. "A wind that blows aimlessly is of no use to anyone." Auster made Jason take action, to stop hesitating and decide how he wanted to get to Epirus without Auster offering anything to them, but it took Jason deciding to throw his lot in with Camp Half-Blood first. Auster became Notus and Jason chose to take control of the winds himself, lassoing them with his own wind powers and using them to steer the Argo II like a chariot all the way to Malta, where they reunited with Leo.
Thanks to Trip's advice, the demigods knew to eat barley cakes before drinking the poison that allows them entrance to the Necromanteion. Between the risk of drinking the poison and how much trust it required the demigods to have in Nico, Nico decided to use the opportunity to poke Jason a bit. No one wanted to drink from the poisoned chalice first, so Nico offered it to Jason. "Well, here you go, son of Jupiter. How much do you trust me?" Jason didn't hesitate and drank the poison immediately. Monsters flung rocks at the group and separated Leo and Hazel from Nico, Jason, Frank, and Piper, leaving the group of four to fight the monsters while Leo and Hazel looked for Percy & Annabeth at the Doors of Death. Nico summoned dead Roman Legionnaires, but none of them listened to him, about half listened to Frank, and Jason didn't have a better shot either. That was when Jason finally swallowed his pride and took Nico's advice; if the problem was Frank's rank of Centurion, then Jason was willing to give up his praetor position and elevate Frank to that status on the field of battle in a time of crisis. Immediately, the swarm of zombies answered Frank's orders. Nico kept summoning zombies and Frank directed them while Jason also listened to Frank's battle strategies and did as he was asked, a faithful soldier but not a commander.
Leo and Hazel rescued Percy and Annabeth from having to fight more enemies as soon as they left the Doors of Death and the Seven were reunited in a rush to leave the crumbling Necromanteion along with Nico. They met up with Coach Hedge and the Argo II, where Reyna was onboard. After a short discussion and strategic planning, it was decided Nico would go with Reyna and Coach Hedge on as many Shadow Jumps as it took Nico to transport the Athena Parthenos statue back to Camp Half-Blood. The Seven would continue on their quest to stop the Giants and Gaea. Thus began the race to final confrontation in Blood of Olympus.
*THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS (Book 10/10)
This book takes place 14 days after Nico and Reyna set off with the Athena Parthenos. So much happens that I really can't summarize it better than this wiki page. Highlights include:
- Jason confronting the ghost of his mother, Beryl Grace, turned into a spirit of insanity.
- Michael Varus stabs Jason with Imperial Gold, grievously injuring him and taking him out for many subsequent skirmishes
- Jason, still injured, and Percy teaming up to fight the sea goddess Kym, which is when Jason tries to placate her with a promise to make all Greek and Roman Gods, even minor ones, important and recognize and worshiped going forward. He thus earns the title Pontifex Maximus. This heals his wound, which was also a representation of Jason tearing himself apart over Greek and Roman loyalties between the two camps.
- Jason and Zeus team up to fight Porphryion, King of the Giants
- Leo sacrifices himself in the final battle with Gaea, which hits Piper and Jason the hardest
Ms. Grace was then ordered to abandon Jason at the Wolf House when he was two years old, after which Thalia was left to believe her brother died. The Wolf House (in Glen Ellen, California) is where all Roman demigods have to begin their training, under the mentorship of Lupa, the same sentient wolf of legend who trained Remus and Romulus. "Conquer or die. This is always our way." Lupa is the gatekeeper for the Roman version of Camp Half-Blood; only the demigods she deems worthy are led on the 50+ mile trek from the Wolf House to New Rome, at Camp Jupiter near San Francisco. But even at the age of 2, she obviously gave him some sort of test he passed. Sometime in the year after Jason was separated from his mother he arrived at Camp Jupiter, was claimed by his father Jupiter, and in the tradition of the Camp, baby Jason was tattooed with a specific design all Roman demigods receive. The tattoo includes: the sigil of his parentage (in this case an eagle), below that "SPQR" meaning "Senātus Populusque Rōmānus" (the motto of the old Roman empire), and one vertical line per year at Camp (and in the Legion and claimed) to resemble something like a barcode. Jason describes being treated like a prince in waiting at Camp Jupiter even from a very young age, which is probably why he was given a hash mark tattoo for every year he lived at Camp Jupiter, even before he was old enough to be of any service to the Legion of New Rome.
It's not clear how Jason was cared for before he was old enough to dress and feed himself, because he never alludes to any foster parents or even a mentor within Camp Jupiter that showed him how things were done. We don't even know who told him his full name - if he arrived at Camp Jupiter around age 3, fresh from the wilds, it's possible Lupa taught it to him as his first words, or Juno in a vision. Every time he thinks about parentage, it's always in the context of his mother Beryl Grace abandoning him at the Wolf House or his absent father Jupiter, never any conflicting ideas with other figures at Camp Jupiter, not even the praetors before him. However, he definitely knew his last name before his memories were taken at the start of Lost Hero.
Either way, Jason is the youngest known demigod to join the Legion, the army that defends a literal city concealed from mortal eyes by the mist. Called New Rome, that city is where Roman demigods are allowed to retire after at least five years of service in the Twelfth Legion. There are only 5 cohorts in the Twelfth Legion at Camp Jupiter, less than in ancient times; cohorts are mostly divided up to balance out the total number of campers across the five cohorts, and not at all by parentage in sharp contrast to Camp Half-Blood. Most children are assigned a cohort if they don't come with any letters of introduction or recommendation for a specific cohort, such as being a Legacy child (one ancestor is a demigod but the rest are mostly mortal) and wanting to be in the same cohort as their demigod ancestor. Once Jason was old enough, somewhere between 5 and 8, he was actually allowed to choose a cohort and formally start Legionnaire warrior training instead of being a kind of Camp Jupiter mascot. He was already feeling "chafed" by Roman traditions and being in the spotlight.
Jason quickly proved to be a prodigy though, and earned respect too because he went on to serve 12 years in the Legion, all of it culminating in Jason becoming one of only two praetors for the entire Legion. You can only become a praetor one of two ways: get elected praetor on the Feast of Fortuna, or be raised on a shield after an honorable battle. Jason alludes to his praetorship being granted through election, while Percy's in Son of Neptune and Frank's in House of Hades was thanks to proof of honorable combat, and this says a lot about Jason's trajectory in life *if* he can embrace it, addressed more in the Personality section. He is a powerful swordsman with a strict discipline that made him that way, but it's not where his strengths lie.
Rising through the ranks at Camp Jupiter did not entail a lot of glamor and Jason preferred it that way. As a Centurion, Jason and the Fifth Cohort often got the unpopular chore of clearing out basilisk nests under the temples in New Rome. Quest Highlights for Jason's early career in the Legion include (with a team from Camp Jupiter each time) fighting flesh-eating ghouls in San Bernadino, seeking the aid of Aeolus in the hunt for the Trojan sea monster then eventually killing it, and helped Bacchus (Dionysus's Roman aspect) find a missing leopard in Sonoma (aka Wine Country, Northern California), and in summer of 2009 salvaging imperial gold from the CSS Hunley in Charleston, South Carolina (in preparation for the war against Kronos).
*THE LAST OLYMPIAN (Book 5 of 10 in the Percy Jackson series)
This book takes place in August 2009.
Paralleling the events of this book, when Percy Jackson and Camp Half-Blood were fighting Kronos on Mount Olympus, Jason and his co-commander Reyna led the First Legion in an attack on Mount Tamalpais in California, Kronos's stronghold and where the remainder of his forces not attacking Olympus were. During that battle, Jason single-handedly defeated the Titan Krios through a combination of swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat.
*THE LOST HERO (Book 6/10)
This book takes place in December 2009. Percy Jackson goes missing, and 3 days later Jason shows up to begin the book.
Jason's memories of Camp Jupiter were stolen by Hera and he woke up in Arizona with Leo and Piper having false memories of time with him at the Wilderness School. Their protector, Coach Hedge (satyr), tried to defend them from a ventus (wind spirit), but was carried off for his efforts. Jason managed to save Piper by flying, startling them both. Then Annabeth arrived to take the three demigods back to Camp Half-Blood, revealing that Percy Jackson had gone missing. At Camp Half-Blood, Chiron (Activities Director, centaur) deepened the mystery by saying that Jason should have been dead. Hera appeared to him to tell him he must free her in order to get his memories back, and that she was his patron, given to her by his father as a peace offering. Chiron and Rachel (mortal prophet) declare that Jason must lead the quest to free Hera, and he chose to take Piper (daughter of Aphrodite) and Leo (son of Hephaestus) with him. After Leo got them a ride - Festus the giant gold mechanical dragon - they set off.
Per Annabeth's advice, they sought out Boreas in Quebec City, who was the first person to hint that Jason was more Roman than just his ability to speak Latin and possessed of an SPQR tattoo. Despite Boreas's daughter Khione's machinations, they were advised to go Chicago in search of wind spirits. Once captured, they would take them to Boreas's master Aeolus, Master of the Winds, as an appeasement to both wind gods and to gain insight on where Hera was being caged. They got waylaid in Detroit by Ma Gasket the Cyclops, but eventually made it to Chicago, where Piper had to charmspeak both Jason and Leo out of a spell by Medea, a human sorceress who'd been resurrected by Gaea and took a department store as her new base of operations. Carrying two giant cages - one of wind spirits and the other of a frozen Coach Hedge - eventually took its toll on Festus the dragon and they crash-landed in Omaha, Nebraska. Leo salvaged only Festus's head from the crash and they took refuge in what turned out to be King Midas's new mansion. Jason defeated Midas by summoning lightning for the first time since his memory loss. Lycaon the first werewolf cornered the four as they were recovering from Piper and Leo being turned to gold by Midas, but he was run off by the Hunters of Artemis. Finally reunited with his sister Thalia, he got a few answers to his past before they were led to Aeolus's place moored at Pike's Peak.
Aeolus was too volatile and not appeased by their gift, but their new friend Mellie (an aurae) blasted them to safety at a cafe near Mount Diablo, where Enceladus was waiting for Piper to lead her friends into a trap. She'd confessed to being a spy for Enceladus the Giant already, so they were mainly focused on getting Piper's dad back. After some initial attempts, Jason squared off against Enceladus alone, but knew he needed the aid of a god to truly defeat the Giant. He prayed for the aid of his father and got a bolt of lightning in answer, but it destroyed his blade Ivlivs. Piper's dad was too traumatized by his ordeal for Piper to want him to live that way, so she used a potion from Medea's department store to make him forget about being captured by Enceladus. Coach Hedge offered to escort him back to his home while the three demigods went to rescue Hera at the Wolf House, the same place all Roman demigods begin their journey with Lupa.
Khione was waiting for them, but Leo fought her off while the Hunters of Artemis - including Thalia - faced a pack of Lycanthropes and Earthborn. Jason's blade was broken, but he still challenged the King of the Giants, Porphyrion, while Leo and Piper worked to free Hera from her cage. Jason was very outmatched, but it bought the time they needed and Porphyrion retreated when Hera was freed. Unfortunately Jason didn't understand he was supposed to shield his eyes from Hera's true form due to his memory loss, and fell comatose on the ground. Piper actually managed to use her charmspeak to order Jason to wake up, which he did and lived to tell the tale. Back at Camp Half-Blood, Hera appeared as Juno to explain to Jason that there had to be an exchange of leaders to bridge the gap between Romans and Greeks. To help him in the coming battles, she gave him a gladius. Jason remembered enough of his past to tell the rest of Camp Half-Blood that he came from a Roman equivalent of Camp Half-Blood, which was where Percy would likely be, but also without his memories, same as Jason. After Leo revealed Bunker 9 to the Camp, they decide to help Leo build a ship called the Argo II which would fly through the air to Camp Jupiter in California with with Annabeth, Piper, Coach Hedge, and of course Leo.
*THE SON OF NEPTUNE (Book 7/10)
Percy Jackson went missing three days before the start of Lost Hero. He spent this book recovering his memories, defending New Rome from a strike force of Gaea's monsters, and befriending Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque in the process. For Jason, this book mostly provides backstory to New Rome and Camp Jupiter and Jason's life there, which has been summarized in the rest of the History section. At the end of this book, the Feast of Fortune happens on June 24th. The next day Leo's ship the Argo II descends over New Rome for Camp Half-Blood's mission of peace with Jason on board along with the other three Greek demigods, Coach Hedge, and Festus as the figurehead and AI for the ship.
*DEMIGOD DIARIES: LEO VALDEZ AND THE QUEST FOR BUFORD (Side Stories Book #2)
This story takes place on Christmas Eve 2009 in the span of an hour, after 2 weeks*** of Leo working on the Argo II.
*** Even though the text claims that Leo has been working on the Argo II for two months, the rest of the timeline (and the fact that this story takes place on Christmas Eve) make that impossible. Two weeks, however, would closely fit correctly in the timeline.
*THE MARK OF ATHENA (Book 8/10)
This book begins on June 25th 2010.
The Argo II arrives and peace talks begin. A feast is prepared while talks of the Quest that the Seven Demigods of the Prophecy (including Jason) happened. Ella the Harpy interrupted the festivities with a prophecy, but Annabeth distracted Octavian so he wouldn't suspect and Leo suggested Octavian could come check out the Argo II so as to see they meant no harm. Then, the rest of the group turned their attention to exploring New Rome. Jason left to show Piper around New Rome, then chaos broke out when Leo (possessed by an Eidolon spirit) fired the Argo II's weapons on New Rome. Trying to calm the crowd and protect Piper at the same time, Jason took a brick to the head and goes comatose. He was out for several hours, waking when the ship was moored in Salt Lake City.
Jason woke up just in time for the Seven to have dinner together and what they planned to do once Leo repaired their ship, which the others were out gathering supplies for earlier that day. In particular, both Jason & Percy tried to take the Head chair, but ceded it to Annabeth. Jason took Piper's hand and reassured her that Gaea must have been the one driving the camps apart, not Leo by his own choice. Hazel explained that they met Nemesis that day, and the goddess said they had 6 days until Nico died and Rome was destroyed, which prompted Jason asking if she meant ancient Rome or New Rome. Hazel was pretty sure it was ancient city. Annabeth cited Reyna's praetor story about Athena driving the camps apart, and Leo & Hazel agreed Nemesis said something similar. Naturally, Percy (still technically a praetor) turned to Jason for the answer, since he'd been praetor longer. His fingers turned clammy in Piper's hands. "I... I'm not sure. I'll give it some thought." Jason didn't respond to Percy pressing him, insisting to Piper via eye contact that they'd talk later about it.
The next morning when the ship arrived in Topeka, Kansas, Jason went with Piper and Percy to look for Bacchus at mile marker 32. Percy summoned Blackjack and Jason summoned Tempest, the storm spirit he tamed at the Wolf House. This cemented Percy & Jason's rivalry. Bacchus found them, and even though Jason tried to placate Bacchus and recalling the favor he did for the god, Percy just picked at Bacchus by calling him Dionysus. Bacchus took to Piper better. She tried to convince him to help them fight Ephialtes and Otis, but what he did tell them to do was get to Atlanta and ask Phorcys for help before suddenly fleeing the area. He sensed Gaea.
Then Jason was put under the control of an Eidolon spirit himself, and made to attack Percy who was similarly possessed. Gaea thought she could get Piper to make a choice between the boys, but she knocked out Jason using her charmspeak and then used it on Blackjack to knock out Percy. Back on the ship, the boys continued their rivalry by posturing over who really would have killed who. During the same meeting about how to safely get to Rome and realizing Gaea wanted two demigods' blood (one male, one female) to water the stones of Rome and awaken Gaea, Piper noticed that there were a total of three Eidolons: the two in Percy and Jason, plus the one that possessed Leo. They discovered then that Leo really didn't fire on New Rome on purpose, and Piper willed the three spirits out of the boys' bodies.
That night Percy & Annabeth slept in the stables together. In the hubbub of the morning, June 27, Percy told the group he had vision of Nico in a jar surviving only on pomegranate seeds. Hazel explained that Nico was in a death trance, which was how he was still alive at all. Some of the Seven were still unsure that they should even rescue Nico at all, Leo wondering if it was a trap and Jason siding with Leo in regards to Nico's trustworthiness. Percy even agreed that Nico had done some shady things in the past. After Hazel stormed out insulting Jason's leadership and fairness as "the great praetor she always looked up to," he became quite bitter towards Percy trying to take charge. That day, Percy, Frank, and Coach Hedge sought out Phorcys in Atlanta. They got Phorcys talking about Ephialtes and Otis's powers as the Anti-Dionysus, and Phorcys also said there was a map in Charleston to show them the Mark of Athena. Jason was the one to suggest a place called the Battery, since he knew the city; he'd quested with Reyna there the year prior. He also took the opportunity to apologize to Hazel for speaking without thinking about Nico's trustworthiness. Jason nominated Leo and Frank to go with him to the museum where the CSS Hunley was kept, since he knew the layout. The others (the three girls and Percy) went to the Battery, where they met Aphrodite and encountered a Roman strike force including Octavian.
In order to escape the Roman attackers, Jason and Percy combined their powers to create a massive storm. By June 29th, they were sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and the Argo II was ambushed by a Skolopendra because Hazel pulled Leo into a memory of Sammy Valdez, Leo's great-grandfather. The attack - in which Jason used his powers in the air with gusto - sent Leo, Hazel, and Frank overboard, where they discovered a camp of mer-demigods. Jason flew all around the ship putting out fires from Leo's gambit before he sunk, then rested until the trio returned. Annabeth explained what the Mark of Athena was - a fiery owl symbol leading Athena's children to the goal. Jason admitted then that he was scared of telling Annabeth about what he suspected the same goal was, due to the scope of what the praetors believed. They both believed the Athena Parthenos, a 40' statue, was at the end of the trail of the Marks of Athena. The theory was that the statue was carted off by Romans to break the Greek spirit, Jason explained. In that moment, Jason finally trusted Annabeth more. The group broke to clean and repair the ship, Jason and Piper taking the lower deck and stables. Jason was handy enough to fix a door, oiling saddles, etc., just like doing chores back at Camp Jupiter as a lower rank in the Fifth Cohort. Between two tasks, Jason reassured Piper that she was strong and beautiful in her own non-Roman/non-Reyna way, and he liked her that way.
On June 30th, they arrived at the Pillars of Hercules, the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and "The Ancient Lands" where Roman demigods had been forbidden to tread. Hercules himself stood on an island waiting for the group, so they decided to send Ambassadors. Jason thought, being half-brothers, he could talk to Hercules better, and of course Piper wanted to go in case her charmspeak could be useful - especially after the incidents in Topeka. Hercules was amicable right up until he learned they were questing for Hera. He sent them to retrieve a horn from Achelous, who turned out to be a river god that wanted Piper for a wife. Piper saved Jason and cut off Achelous's horn, but refused to give the horn back to Hercules. It became a cornucopia and Piper used it to bury Hercules in food, giving the Argo II just enough time to get by Hercules without a real fight.
Jason then spent so much energy creating storms to protect the Argo II, he was worn out by the time the pirate Chrysaor attacked. Percy managed to trick Chrysaor and sunk his pirate treasure as an offering to Bacchus. They Seven arrived in Rome on July 1st and split up. Frank, Hazel, and Leo went to pinpoint Nico's location while Percy escorted Annabeth as far as he could before she had to start her solo quest for the statue. While those five were out, Piper and Jason guarded the Argo II with Coach Hedge, eventually deciding to have a picnic to avoid the satyr. Piper's cornucopia spat out a birthday cake and Jason admitted it was his birthday. Piper also got Jason talking about what it was like only being part of a small group of Seven instead of a Legion, where Jason had been elected a Leader as far back as he could remember, even before he was made praetor. Standing among equals, he felt like a failure. "I've spent most of this trip knocked out or helpless." Which wasn't true in the least, but even 33% of the trip still felt like "most" to Jason, who'd become accustomed to shouldering so much pressure through the years, just like Hercules. He went so far as to say he didn't deserve Piper, but they kissed to bury that topic, then Percy came running towards the ship.
Piper revealed her recent visions in her blade, then set off with Percy and Jason to save Nico - without waiting for Leo, Hazel, and Frank to return. Their search led them to a Nymphaeum, where a nymph called Hagno had gone insane with their water diverted from the chamber. Hagno and her eight compatriots, who were so old they'd watched over Zeus's birth, filled the room with water and started drowning the three demigods - exactly as Piper had foreseen, in spite of Percy being usually un-drownable as a son of Poseidon. The nymphs were draining their demigod powers, hence even Percy drowning in the water. Piper was inspired to channel their remaining emotions into her cornucopia, filling the Nymphs with positive thoughts and clean water at the same time. The Nymphs were healed and restored the trio to their full strength in thanks, then told them where they could find the twin gods and their captured Angel aka Nico di Angelo.
The trio distracted Otis and Ephialtes long enough with talk of event planning like a theater troupe's performance to hear about Gaea's forces' plans for her rise in a month. When fighting broke out, Jason went after Otis. At one point Jason saw Piper get knocked out by the fireworks he used to defeat a hydra while Piper was defending Nico, and Jason rushed to her aide. Then he deflected Otis's massive spear at Ephialtes, turning him to dust, and a piece of the ceiling crushed Otis. They weren't permanently dead because they needed the help of a god, and Bacchus appeared (placated thanks to the offering) but wanted to be entertained first. Jason and Percy agreed to fight together to entertain him, and returned the two to dust a second time, but it wasn't enough for Bacchus until the Argo II showed up and blasted the twins as well. With his help, they defeated the twins and saved Nico.
The six demigods listened to Nico's story briefly as he recounted being overwhelmed by Gaea's forces in Tartarus. Percy insisted that they would just have to close the Doors of Death from the mortal side, which Nico said was in Epirus. With all of the plotting, Percy realized they didn't have their plotter back with them yet. They had to find Annabeth and Bacchus had given them a clue before he left. Annabeth actually succeeded in defeating Arachne and locating the Athena Parthenos all by herself. What the Seven demigods + Nico & Coach Hedge didn't consider was just how heavy the statue was plus Arachne. The floor cracked, then the statue started to fall into the hole and the group rushed to secure it, with Jason flying around per Leo's directions. He and the others didn't even notice until it was too late that Annabeth had fallen into the hole in the floor, a hole leading straight to Tartarus, and that Percy chose to fall with her. Jason felt guilty that he wasn't aware enough to fly down and save them, but Nico insisted the force of Tartarus would have pulled him in too. Their only choice is to follow Percy's last request of Nico - to lead the group to Epirus, and meet him and Annabeth on the other side of the Doors of Death.
*THE HOUSE OF HADES (Book 9/10)
This book begins on July 5th 2010.
After losing Annabeth & Percy to Tartarus, the remaining six demigods (five of The Seven plus Nico) plus Coach Hedge were trying to get to Epirus to meet Percy & Annabeth on the other side of the Doors of Death. They reached Bologna but were waylaid by two monkey-dwarf thieves. Leo caught them and Jason arrived at the top of the tower while flying to help convince the two thieves to do as they said for not killing them. Leo ordered the two to sabotage the Roman army approaching New York for as long as they could, while the Argo II gang returned a book from their stash to the god of agriculture Triptolemus in Venice. To appease "Trip," Frank had to defeat all of the katoblepones in the city, and in doing so earned the blessing of his father, Mars. Frank had to do that to get Nico restored from being a plant and Hazel healed, as she was poisoned by the katoblepones.
One day, an arrow is shot into the ship with a note saying that Sciron the bandit would take their treasure or their lives. Jason and Hazel chose to parlay with him, since Hazel assumed she could summon treasure to appease him. There, Jason tried to come up with a plan, but Hazel's was better: she used the Mist to make Sciron see both demigods being kicked off the cliff, but Jason just hovered and waited for Hazel in case she was kicked off too. Instead, she was only kicked a few feet and instead Sciron was knocked off into the mouth of his own monster. After a dream vision featuring Reyna, Jason urged Leo to steer for Split, Croatia where they could leave a note for Reyna to find and hopefully get a powerful magical object to aid them. Nico volunteered to go since it was a tomb and Jason chose to go with him in a show of solidarity.
They ended up meeting Favonius, Roman god of the west wind, who told them a story of how he had a male lover Hyacinthus that he fought with Apollo over. That got Jason thinking about homosexual relationships, and after a moment he decided that what Favonius was trying to communicate in his story was more important than the fact that he'd had a male lover. That was important because when they met Cupid, he wasn't interested in Jason, claiming that he'd already found true love, but Nico had a secret to reveal and Cupid said the only way to defeat him was to face him. Bullied and coerced with visions (shared with Jason) of his past, Nico confessed that the reason he left Camp Half-Blood and spent so much time alone was because he'd had a crush on Percy, not Annabeth as had been rumored, even after he'd failed to keep his sister Biance safe. Jason resolved to convince Nico that he, and the other demigods, were not going to push him away just because he felt that way about boys, but he also promised that it was Nico's choice of when and how to reveal that information. (He also later showed he's in the "It's not like you have a choice, it's just who you are" camp of respect for gay people.) For the time being, they were just glad to have Diocletian's scepter for the trouble.
Unfortunately Khione found them again. Leo got a special punishment of being flung all the way Ogygia, home of Calypso. Back on the ship, Jason was frozen in place along with the others, leaving Piper alone to fend off the Boreads. She managed to wake Festus the dragon with her charmspeak - and even Leo never understood how she did it - but his fire sent the Boreads running and Piper got to keep a new blade. With Festus damaged and Leo gone, Jason suggested they visit Auster, Roman god of the south wind, for help getting to Epirus. With several days of being denied audience with Auster, Jason had time to think about his being split between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter and try to gain Nico's trust a bit more.
Finally Jason got to see Auster and it took all of his diplomacy to deal with the capricious and forgettable god. It turned out he needed the audience with Auster more than he anticipated. The god of the winds saw in Jason a similarity to his own children - that he was drifting between Greek and Roman. "A wind that blows aimlessly is of no use to anyone." Auster made Jason take action, to stop hesitating and decide how he wanted to get to Epirus without Auster offering anything to them, but it took Jason deciding to throw his lot in with Camp Half-Blood first. Auster became Notus and Jason chose to take control of the winds himself, lassoing them with his own wind powers and using them to steer the Argo II like a chariot all the way to Malta, where they reunited with Leo.
Thanks to Trip's advice, the demigods knew to eat barley cakes before drinking the poison that allows them entrance to the Necromanteion. Between the risk of drinking the poison and how much trust it required the demigods to have in Nico, Nico decided to use the opportunity to poke Jason a bit. No one wanted to drink from the poisoned chalice first, so Nico offered it to Jason. "Well, here you go, son of Jupiter. How much do you trust me?" Jason didn't hesitate and drank the poison immediately. Monsters flung rocks at the group and separated Leo and Hazel from Nico, Jason, Frank, and Piper, leaving the group of four to fight the monsters while Leo and Hazel looked for Percy & Annabeth at the Doors of Death. Nico summoned dead Roman Legionnaires, but none of them listened to him, about half listened to Frank, and Jason didn't have a better shot either. That was when Jason finally swallowed his pride and took Nico's advice; if the problem was Frank's rank of Centurion, then Jason was willing to give up his praetor position and elevate Frank to that status on the field of battle in a time of crisis. Immediately, the swarm of zombies answered Frank's orders. Nico kept summoning zombies and Frank directed them while Jason also listened to Frank's battle strategies and did as he was asked, a faithful soldier but not a commander.
Leo and Hazel rescued Percy and Annabeth from having to fight more enemies as soon as they left the Doors of Death and the Seven were reunited in a rush to leave the crumbling Necromanteion along with Nico. They met up with Coach Hedge and the Argo II, where Reyna was onboard. After a short discussion and strategic planning, it was decided Nico would go with Reyna and Coach Hedge on as many Shadow Jumps as it took Nico to transport the Athena Parthenos statue back to Camp Half-Blood. The Seven would continue on their quest to stop the Giants and Gaea. Thus began the race to final confrontation in Blood of Olympus.
*THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS (Book 10/10)
This book takes place 14 days after Nico and Reyna set off with the Athena Parthenos. So much happens that I really can't summarize it better than this wiki page. Highlights include:
- Jason confronting the ghost of his mother, Beryl Grace, turned into a spirit of insanity.
- Michael Varus stabs Jason with Imperial Gold, grievously injuring him and taking him out for many subsequent skirmishes
- Jason, still injured, and Percy teaming up to fight the sea goddess Kym, which is when Jason tries to placate her with a promise to make all Greek and Roman Gods, even minor ones, important and recognize and worshiped going forward. He thus earns the title Pontifex Maximus. This heals his wound, which was also a representation of Jason tearing himself apart over Greek and Roman loyalties between the two camps.
- Jason and Zeus team up to fight Porphryion, King of the Giants
- Leo sacrifices himself in the final battle with Gaea, which hits Piper and Jason the hardest
