Chapter Text
Leo is alive, again, for like the sixth time
Something something Jason went off to gather parts of all the plants people have been turned into to make a sacrifice? Dr. Frankenbonsi a Leo? He's not sure, all he knows is he got spat out of Thalia’s tree and it was both gross and hella painful. Not the worst resurrection so far, but definitely the one with the most tree sap
Also, Nico’s pissed again that they fucked around too much. Whatever Jason did with his spooky tree thing has apparently made a weak spot for underworld magic and now they have to go close it
It's not the first time Nico has had to turn their ass back around the way they came because they fucked some underworld something in what di Angelo has dubbed their ‘Gay Chicken On Steroids Quest’. He's equally pissed at both Leo and Jason every time, so Leo tries to take some solace in that
Like, hooray Leo we‘re glad you're back, go back from whence you came we gotta go close the hole you crawled out of or whatever
The issue this time isn't how Leo came back, but the fucking cultist that have taken over the spot Jason did his Zuse wood magic thing
They end up in Newport State Park near the tippy-top point of Wisconsin’s peninsula, in a clearing in a grove of Oak and Linden trees. The place has to be hidden by the mist, Leo has checked the satellite imaging on Google Maps multiple times as they trek through the trees and underbrush to see nothing out of the ordinary, or even a landmark. There's some kind of temple off up a hill with way too many Canadian Geese guarding it, but that's not what they're after
What they are after is the lowlands under the temple where the earth was carved away by an ancient flood. The trees never grew back there, leaving room for the milkweed, cardinal flowers, and forget-me-nots to flourish under the sun. It would be a lovely sight, if the flowers hadn't been trampled by the cultists
Fucking cultists, they're digging a hole
“What's with the hole?” Piper asks. The three of them are up in the brush at the top of the hill across from the temple, watching the robed dudes down below and desperately avoiding the geese.
“Fuck if I know” Nico monotones
“Dude, you're the whole reason we're here,” Leo gapes “How do you not know what's up with the hole?”
“Just because I know that cultists are fucking around doesn't mean I know the method to their madness” Nico grouches
“Oh no wait I think they're planting that guy,” Piper identifies “Or burying him alive? Whatever there's a dude going in the hole”
“Yeah, looks like it's time to step in,” Nico tosses the binoculars back at Leo to stash in his tool belt and draws his spooky-ass sword “Whatever you do don't bother the geese, I think they are only here for the temple”
“There is no way in hell I'm fucking with a goose,” Leo relents, tucking everything away “Have you ever been one on one with a goose, because I have”
“Oh yeah same,” Nico shudders “I got chased by like four of them when I was homeless in Central Park”
“Fucking vicious right!?”
“Yeah, if I didn't know better I'd say they were hell spawn”
“Is there a plan?” Piper cuts in before they start down what she calls ‘sad homeless orphan lamentations’
“Keep the cult from burying anyone, don't die,” Nico tells them “I can close the weak point once we clear them out”
“Fantastic,” Piper says
They end up splitting up slightly, being outnumbered puts a damper on charging in even if it looks mostly like mortals below. Nico poofs off one way whereas Leo and Piper sneak off the other, it works for about eight seconds before they are spotted in the wildflowers
“You there!” cries one of the cultists pointing “Show yourself!“
“What is he a fucking Monty Python character” Piper grumps
“Hello!” Leo improvises, standing abruptly “Hello fellow cult members, I have come to uh, help you with the cult stuff” Leo can see Nico facepalm in a patch of swamp lupine on the other side of the hill
“Yep sure do love digging holes and putting people in them, uh” Leo is apparently now the distraction because Piper is lining up her blow dart as his hip and Nico is creeping in from the back “Sure am excited using a whole ass man as a seed, that's definitely gonna appease our god!”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” cuts in one of the cult guys in the back, Piper blow darts him two seconds later
Things go fast from there. There are six above-ground cult members and one fancy one in the hole, Nico quickly takes out the one next to Mr. Blow Dart In The Neck. Leo pulls a handsaw and a ball peen hammer out of his belt, whipping the hammer at the closest robed figure and following a knife-wielding Piper into the fray
It's the classic chaos of a close combat fight; dodge, duck, swipe at a weak spot, and don't hit your friends. They're holding their own pretty well for being outnumbered in a goose poop-filled muddy clearing. But it's when Leo turns to throw another hammer at the man starting to overpower Piper that he hears a new voice enter the equation
“Leo!”
And there he is, it's Jason.
He's alive, walking talking breathing moving of his own accord. Or he would be, if the knife that was meant for Leo wasn't sticking out of his back
Leo hasn't seen him in three years .
“Jason?”
They lock eyes for a second, blue to brown, and then Jason gives one hard bloody cough. Leo can see the tip of the knife just piercing through his shirt, the smallest hit of silver surrounded by spreading red
“ Jason !”
The Hole Cultist pulls his blade up first, making a sick crunching and ripping noise accompanied by Jason’s cut-off scream, before wrenching it back out and kicking the blond away. Jason falls hard, and he stays down, the robed man turning back to his original target of Leo with a sneer. There is a lot of blood, like the knife went through a major artery or organs or something, pooling around where Jason lays barely moving, it makes Leo see red
He tends not to be the one fighting in the front lines, especially not with his fire. Like Leo can defend himself and others if he needs to, but he much prefers to launch wrenches at people like Ratchet from Transformers or act as a support. Fire is too hard to control in close or crowded combat, and there is too high a risk of hurting someone friendly or catching the landscape ablaze
Leo doesn't really care about that right now, his body moves on its own
Charbroiled he thinks the term is, or at least extra crispy, because for once Leo is not holding back. That tight panicked control he's had to keep on his fire his whole life whips away from him in a flash of light and heat at the cultist, a Saturn's rings of flame surrounding him and then projected at the man. Either way, there's not much left of them when he's done, half the flesh seared off the bone and all
“Jason!” Leo screams as he turns back, scrambling away from the horror show he's made of the robed figure and sliding on his hands and knees next to the blond. He gathers Jason into his arms and onto his lap, not caring for the blood and viscera that are coating them both, Jason grabs him back with shaking hands the best he can “ Jason !”
“O-oh hey,” Jason says like he's not actively bleeding out “It's good to see you”
“Jason, what the fuck” Leo cries, vision blurring with the water in his eyes “Don't do this to me!”
“It’s okay,” Jason tries to soothe him through the blood in his mouth, gore-slick hands losing their grip on Leo’s jacket and looking straight into Leo’s eyes like a promise “I'll get you on-on the n-next round, just-just wait, for me” and then he's gone, the light leaving him In one last desperate rasping breath
“No no no nonono no! ” Leo begs through his tears, shaking him in his arms like it will make Jason’s spirit come back to his body “Jason come on please! ”
It's not fair, he's right here and it's not fair . They were so close, Leo can feel how close they were to making it
He's on fire, he knows he is but he doesn't have it in him to care. It's whipping around like a storm, like a tornado, pouring off of him harder and hotter than it's ever been, the heat making Jason's body slowly cremate in his arms. All Leo can do is burn and sob, hunched over what's left of the man he's so desperate for even as other things around them catch with him
It's not fair, they were so close and it's not fair
Leo is done. He's played by the rules and bent over backwards to appease the gods and this is what they get? They were never going to let Leo have him, it's always been just a show, just another stupid myth to add to the collection. Here's a parable on what wanting what you can't have will do to you, it is storm or fire after all
Leo is over it, he's going to write his own story
He can hear Piper’s panicked voice somewhere off somewhere, but he can't find it in him to care for once. If he's going to die this time for this at least she won't be there like all the other deaths. Maybe she can be spared for once
It's hot, his fire, so hot for once it's blue. Jason’s body might be dust slipping through his hands but Leo knows without needing to look it's the same color as his eyes
So he hulls himself up. He's still burning, the ash that is Jason combining with the ash and stone that is the landscape and changing. Magma, lava, stone and glass.
Obsidian
Leo walks
And the ground melts away
He walks the whole way down like that, all the way to the underworld. Nothing stops him, not the earth or spirits or monsters, nothing even tries. He creates his own tunnel like that, burning his entrance to the upside down, an Obsidian Field
He may not be falling into the planet, but it sure is close
Leo doesn't waste time when he gets to the upside down, beelining it to the queue of souls waiting to be judged, honed in on the blond like he's being reeled in by the heartstrings. He's terrified, he's breaking so many rules, but he can't care about that right now. He won't care about it. If they want to strike him down for this Leo can just step in behind Jason, he's not above cutting in line.
It doesn't take Leo long to find him, in the long procession of semi-transparent dead people Jason is surprisingly opaque. He has a hand in his grody ripped jeans pockets and staring at an outcropping of stalagmites like a crappy waiting room TV. The microsecond Leo is close enough he grabs him out of line by the hand, Jason looks surprised to see him so soon
“We are leaving ” Leo demands through his teeth
“Okay,” Jason says, and then Leo drags him back the way he came
He doesn't let go of Jason's hand the whole way up, but he doesn't look at him either, just in case.
When they get upstairs the land around them is one big sheet of black glass with the hole to the new underworld entrance smack dab in the middle. there's a spot in front of them, where the new stone is discolored and rippled like water. Where Jason died, where Leo caught fire. It’s kinda pretty in a way, glittering and reflective, but nothing looks better than turning around and Jason still being there
“Hi,” Jason says, a huge grin on his face
“Hey,” Leo breathes back, still terrified their both about to be whisked away back under
“I missed you,” Jason tells him, squeezing his hand
“ Dude ” Leo is trembling, is this really happening?
“Just, come here ”
Jason pulls him into an embrace by their joined hands, and Leo melts into it holding him back like a lifeline.
It's probably the best hug in existence Leo thinks, even though it's one-armed and they are both hella gross. But it's Jason , and he's here. He's here and he's sticking his stupid handsome face in Leo’s hair and pulling him in so tight it makes his ribs hurt. Leo thought he had run out of tears somewhere between the Metamorphic Rocks and the Mantle, but apparently not. He's sobbing into Jason’s nasty ass shirt, and Jason lets go of his hand just to hold him tighter
“Holy shit!” Leo hears Piper shreek in the distance “Holy shit he did it! ”
There's more screaming, the sound of friends and family inbound across the still-steaming ground, but right now it's just Leo and Jason standing in the cooling obsidian
Leo looks up at him, just to make sure it's true and Jason is here for realzies this time. He's met with blue eyes, blue like the sky above them clear of clouds, blue like the heart of the hottest flames, blue like home
“Let's go home,” Leo tells him
“Okay,” Jason replies, seconds before Piper body slams them both to the ground “Let's go home”