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Caligula’s spear hit Jason between his shoulder blades and Piper screamed. She saw how his body went tight and his eyes went wide and all she wanted was to be by his side but instead, she couldn’t move. All she could do was stare at those blue eyes that always brought her comfort and see an emotion in them she had never seen in them before.
Thump-thump. Thump.
He whispered something to Tempest and it must have been an order because his steed wouldn’t have simply let him fall the way he did. Jason looked up at her or just looked up in general and Piper realized that he was out of steam, the way they all were.
Thump. Thump.
She heard the last bit of Caligula’s orders, “But kill the girl.”
Thump… thump.
Piper shook with rage and let it out with a howl because how dare he. Before she could move, Apollo covered her but not even he could shield what happened next. Caligula grabbed his spear and shoved it right through Jason’s back and Piper stopped.
Thump…
See, there was a power some Aphrodite kids posessed, a sensitivity that’s rare for them to possess but possible to own. It was meant to be romantic hearing the heartbeats of those closest to you. It was used to hear how the heart beats and see who is flustered around those they love or like. Piper had always had it but had never really noticed it, not until Jason. She used to hear how his heart would skip a beat every time she gave him a smile meant only for him or when she defeated him in a spar. From then on, it was easy to listen to the heartbeats of her friends. She had tried it with strangers and acquaintances but it didn’t work the way it did with people she had feelings for, platonic or otherwise.
Piper tried to focus on his heartbeat but it was no use. Tempest had swept her away and the sound of screams and sobs were too loud to hear anything else but the grief that encompassed her and Apollo.
The screams only grew louder when she was dropped off on the shore. Everything hurt and the crying wouldn’t stop.
Piper did her best to convey her message of finding Jason to Tempest and he disappeared soon after, understanding her gestures.
Jason couldn’t be dead because the last she heard his heart was still beating. Jason had to be alive. He couldn’t just die, not like that. She pleaded to her mother and his father for him to come back and then when no response came, she cursed them and cursed Apollo too. He tried to give her ambrosia but she refused it because she wanted nothing from him and if he had some to spare, it would be best used on Jason whenever Tempest brought him back.
Piper wanted Jason back already. She was so, so tired, but she couldn’t fall asleep, not until Jason was back with her and healed up. She wanted to hear his heartbeat again, to assure her that he was still alive because there isn’t another option. There couldn’t be.
The sobbing wouldn’t stop and neither did the ache and she wanted it to stop too. Apollo, Lester, whatever the fuck his name was, needed to be silent. She needed silence for the moment to focus on hearing Jason’s heartbeat. She could pick it up from a crowd of thousands because she was so familiar with it but for that to happen, it needed it to be at least quiet.
Meg handed her ambrosia but she hadn’t even noticed her arrival. The girl placed her hand on her shoulder and said quietly, “You’re going to damage your throat permanently if you keep sobbing like that.”
Piper blinked and processed what she said and her eyes widened.
Oh. Oh.
She was the one who was being loud. It still hurt but it became.. not completely silent but quiet.
Piper took the ambrosia and also the nectar reluctantly but the pain dulled so she supposed it worked. The ache was still there though.
Once she was capable of actual speech, Piper said with absolute belief, “He’s not dead.”
Meg held onto her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. “Maybe. We’ll see. You need to rest and heal.”
She’d laugh if she could because she couldn’t rest, not even if she tried to. Piper needed to hear Jason’s heartbeat before she could attempt to fall asleep.
“Maybe? Meg, you didn’t see what happened! He… Jason… the spear—”
Piper glared at Apollo, as did Meg, and Piper didn’t feel so alone in that moment with the younger girl on her side.
“Tempest will find Jason. We just have to wait.”
Meg was right. Piper had instructed the steed to find him and now, they had to play the waiting game.
“He’s not dead,” Piper repeated. It was nice to say aloud because now wasn’t a mantra simply in her head. “He has been through too much to die now, like that.”
“Jason Grace is not dead.” Her words gained a soft edge to them when she said it again. It felt similar to Charmspeak, except there was no aimed target.
Piper ignored the others and looked out on the sea, waiting for Tempest to bring back Jason.
When the smell of ozone hit her nose, she sprang up and went closer to the shoreline. Lightning lit up the water’s surface and Piper went to focus but the ache grew too much for her to focus on anything else so she decided to use her eyes.
The wind horse knelt down gently and Piper felt relief because Jason was back but then her eyes went wide and she felt crushed. The ache took control of her and she fell to her knees, next to the body of her best friend… next to her best friend’s cor—
Jason lay next to her and he looked— Piper shook her head and cried out, “Jason!”
Jason didn’t respond and she grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him and still, nothing.
Piper ignored the other two and let her Charmspeak grow in her chest, her heart, until it left from her mouth, “Wake up, Jason!” No response, she needed more. “C’mon, Sparky, you need to wake up.” Nothing again. “Baby, Jason, please, you need to wake up for me, okay?” Not even a twitch.
Why weren’t her powers working? Why wasn’t he waking up?
“ You want to wake up! Gods, why won’t you wake up?! WAKE UP!”
“— per! Piper! You have to let him go.”
Apollo screaming caught her attention and she remembered Meg’s request and then that this is the god of healing in front of her. Then, she remembered Leo, Leo who came back to life.
“The physician's cure, can’t you make it?!” Piper is sure she looked crazy and sounded it too, but she couldn’t care less.
He shook his head and said something along the lines of, “I can’t do it. I let Jason die and I can’t fix him.”
Her mind scrambled for any other way because Jason couldn’t just— Jason couldn’t leave her and his friends, not like this. There had to be something. She remembered the Cherokee plant that could cure him and told Apollo and Meg of it. They just needed to find it and everything would be alright.
Again, Apollo said something like, “It won’t work.”
“The Doors of Death, then!” She was starting to run out of solutions. “Medea came back that way! Why not Jason? There’s always a way to cheat the system.” Piper gripped her hair and tugged on it. “Help me!”
They did nothing and Piper’s tears began anew.
Gently, Apollo spoke, “Piper, you and Jason fought to close the Doors of Death. Because you knew it was not right to let the dead back into the world of the living. Jason Grace struck me as many things, but he wasn’t a cheater. Would he want you to rend the heavens and the earth and the Underworld to bring him back?”
How dare he? How dare he believe he has any right to speak of Jason like he knew him, like he would know what Jason would or wouldn’t want. He was just another ungrateful god.
“You don’t care because you’re a god. You’ll go back to Olympus after you free the Oracles, so what does it matter? You’re using us to get what you want, like all the other gods.”
“Hey,” Meg interjected gently, “That won’t help.” Like she could talk.
Piper looked down on Jason, her hand pressed against his unmoving chest. “What did he die for, Apollo? A pair of shoes?” She let out a short laugh because it was all so fucking ridiculous, even more so when Apollo’s eyes widened and he searched for the shoes until they fell onto the sand. They weren’t even shoes, but sandals.
“They’re here. At least— At least we have them.” Like Piper cares.
She sobbed and then stroked Jason’s hair. She used to do this all the time, when it was just the two of them. “Yeah, yeah, that’s great. You can go see your Oracle now. The Oracle that got him KILLED!”
It was the first time she admitted it and she didn’t want it to be true.
“Piper?” Her head whipped up to see her dad running towards her. “Piper, I was waiting for you! I was on the terrace and—”
He froze and Piper could only imagine what he saw. His daughter looked worse for wear with a dead boy in her lap.
“Oh no, no.” He rushed to Piper. “What— what is— ? Who…?”
He knelt down next to her and focused on Jason the moment he recognized that nothing was immediately wrong with Piper and he checked his pulse and then put his ear to Jason’s mouth. There was none, this she knew.
Piper did nothing and her shoulders shook as her dad tried to put everything together, the Mist already working its magic when he concluded that it must have been a surfing accident. He tried to dial 9-1-1 but that didn’t work.
He pulled her away from his body and it hurt to leave him there and her dad pulled her into his arms and it was like something inside of her broke because she couldn’t stop sobbing again and there was a finality to it because she couldn't even breath.
Piper barely heard her dad tell the others to call 9-1-1 but Piper had to say it.
Between gulps of air, “And Apollo? Don’t come back. You hear me? Just— just go.”
Her dad tried to lessen her blow but she wouldn’t have it. “GO!” Piper screamed, Charmspeak working full time.
Once they were out of sight, Piper fell apart in her dad’s arms and let grief consume her. Piper sobbed and cried and ached.
It became worse when she couldn’t hear her dad’s heartbeat despite focusing on it, not like she was used to.
Piper screamed louder, the sea becoming violent in its waves and crashing hard against the shore behind her. It was cruel to take away this power because it meant... It meant that...
The first and last heartbeat she would ever feel and know in her heart was Jason’s.