Chapter Text
Joseph
Joseph was falling. He could feel the wind rushing past him and the hot sun hitting his face. He tried to move, to brace for impact, but he couldn't move, couldn't do anything. The only thing he could do was fall and fall. Joseph closed his eyes as his body hit the hard ground.
As he reawakened, the dark haired man could hear the voices of people all around him. He could feel pain coursing through his body, leaving Joseph unable to do anything. Finally, he opened his eyes. Everything was blurry, but he could make out a couple of people over him. He could feel his sword poking the side of his back, which caused the blue-eyed man to relax slightly as he thought he had lost his blade.
Joseph thought he felt someone holding him, crying, but he couldn’t see. Slowly and painfully, he moved his head to look at the person.
The girl had curly, blond hair and wore an orange shirt. She laid her head on his chest so he couldn't see his face but the injured man thought he knew.
Seemingly feeling him move, the girl lifted her head to reveal stormy gray eyes and a sharp face. Her eyes widened in shock before quickly moving her face in front of his, yelling something to him and the others around him. Briefly, Joseph could have sworn he saw Jason Grace pass by but the guy passed by too soon.
He could feel his eyes rolling back and his body growing limp, and before he could do anything, fell back into the darkness of unconsciousness, saying only two words, “Jason… Annabeth.”
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Joseph woke up slowly. Waking up, he could see sunlight coming through a nearby window, illuminating him and the bed he was on. The room he was in was quite bright, and Joseph had to squint his eyes in order to see a thing. Carefully, he started to sit up, hissing in pain as he did so, when the oak door opened up and Annabeth came in.
Seeing Joseph sitting up, Annabeth rushed over and gently pushed him down. The man groaned from being moved suddenly, but cracked a pain filled smile at the blond, saying, “ Hey sis.”
Annabeth, who was talking to herself, muttering about idiots, looked at the grinning man before smacking his head.
“Owww! What was that for?” Joseph questioned jokingly.
“ That's for making everyone worry about you for the past year!” Annabeth exclaimed before quickly capturing him in a hug.
“ Hey, where are we? Last thing I remember was falling,” Joseph asked.
“We're at Camp, Joseph. Everyone was getting ready for our next quest when you suddenly just showed up in the air with the symbol of Hephaestus above you. We tried to catch you but you were moving too fast. I-” At that, Annabeth started to choke up. Quickly, her brother embraced her and started to say soothing words, calming her down.
Taking a few stuttering breaths, Annabeth continued, “I thought I lost you like I lost Luke, like… Percy.”
Hearing Percy’s name, Joseph's head snapped up, face etched with concern. “Percy!? What happened to him?” Slowly, his face twisted in anger. “He didn't do anything to you, right?!”
The daughter of Athena shook her head quickly, saying, “He disappeared a couple of months ago. Hera took him away from us. We only realized where he was a few months ago.”
“Where did he go?”
“Turns out there was another camp of demigods in the West Coast who worshiped the Roman versions of the gods and -” Annabeth’s face was turned away from him, so she didn't see Joseph's reaction to her words. His face, previously filled with concern and confusion, twisted into complete and utter fear. His breaths started to become quicker and quicker and his eyes started to dilate. Everything around him was hazy, he couldn't focus. Joseph tried to calm down but all he could do was imagine his two homes being destroyed by each other. The images she showed him of Camp Jupiter in flames and Camp Half-Blood demolished rose to the surface of his mind, causing him to panic even more.
He could feel his body shaking, both from fear and Annabeth. She was trying to calm him down, some detached part of him realized but nothing was working. She started yelling for someone to come help, tears threatening to come out, which he could tell she valiantly held in trying to stay calm for him.
Hearing the commotion, a tall blond boy (That was Jason Grace. How was he at Camp Half-Blood?) burst into the room, frantically twisting his head to find the source until his eyes fell upon the two. Eyes softening at the sight, he walked towards Joseph and reached out his hand, who flinched away, not recognizing anything around him. The boy stopped at the side of the bed, kneeling to be eye level, and said, “It's okay Joseph, you're safe now.”
Joseph shook his frantically, eyes bloodshot and frenzied. “No! Everyone is going to die Jason! Everyone is going to die! She swore it and I couldn't stop her!” At that, both Annabeth and Jason looked at each other in alarm before trying to comfort the man again.
Annabeth hugged him again, saying, “I don't know who you are talking about, but nobody is going to die. No matter what anyone says.”
Jason nodded agreement before speaking up. “She's right, we’ll fight to keep everyone safe.”
Annabeth continued, “We managed to defeat Kronos and his army. We’ll defeat this being as well.”
Joseph shook his head, they didn't know what they were talking about. They were going to fight each other, just like they had for millennia. No, the only way to fix that was to retrieve the statue and he had failed. The best option was for them to stay separated and now he failed that too?!
But, was that what he wanted? Joseph thought back to when he first went to both camps, before his horrible failure. No… he remembered wanting them to be together. For all of his family and friends to be together at last, and not separated. And as he looked up at Annabeth and Jason working together, he thought, maybe just maybe, it could work. That Romans standing shoulder and shoulder with Greeks wasn't just a dream, but a possibility.
Slowly, Joseph began to calm down, his wide gray eyes beginning to close and chest starting to move at a normal pace. Before he let the sweet realm of Morpheus take him, he looked up at some of his most precious people and apologized, “I’m sorry about that. A lot of things have happened in the past year. I’ll explain everything later, but for now I think I’d like to rest for a bit.”
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Jason
As Jason looked up from Joseph's resting face, he met Annabeth's eyes. For the first time since he met her, they showed the fear she had. Her usual storm gray eyes were red from frustration, anger, and exhaustion.
He knew his eyes looked exactly the same. Neither of them had slept at all in the past few days, what with preparing for the voyage to Camp Jupiter on the Argo II and then Joseph’s sudden appearance.
He felt his gaze fall back on who he thought was his best friend. Despite what Hera had said, he still hasn't remembered everything about his past life. Sometimes, he would get a random memory while doing something. However, most of the time, all he remembered were names and his feelings to them But when he saw Joseph laying on the ground in that broken heap after his fall, Jason had felt as if part of his heart was ripped out. It felt like the ground below was gone but he couldn't harness the winds. He was just falling and falling.
For the first time since he found out he had a sister, Jason felt mad… no, pissed at the gods for messing with his life. Piper and Leo tried to comfort him after Chiron took Joseph to get treatment, but they couldn't understand. They couldn't understand what it was like to realize that he had forgotten one of the most important people in his life.
Seeing Joseph had been like a jumpstart for his memories, they just started flooding back into his head as if a dam had broken. He could remember everything. Training with Lupa, joining the legion, meeting Octavian, Dakota, Gwen, the former praetors, and of course Joseph and Reyna. He remembered exploring Camp and New Rome with Reyna and Joseph with Octavian sometimes joining to keep them out of trouble or talk with Joseph. He could remember sparring with Dakota, or fighting Gwen in war games. He remembered the praetors death, his and Reyna’s election, his fight with Krios. He could finally remember everything.
Seeing Joseph break down in front of him was something he probably would never unsee. Joseph was always the strong one at Camp. He supported everyone and lifted everybody's spirits. He wasn't just Jason’s best friend but also his big brother. His older brother wasn't supposed to be scared of anything yet there he was yelling and screaming about everyone dying. Jason wanted to help but he didn't know what to do. And he knew Annabeth felt the same.
He opened his mouth to say something but Annabeth beat him to the punch.
“Do you think… Do you think he will be okay?” She asked so quietly that Jason almost didn't hear. This was the most scared he had ever seen Annabeth, and while he was just as scared as her, he schooled his expression and tried to comfort her like Joseph always did him.
“He will be. Especially if we are there to help him.” He took a shaky breath, unable to hide his fear anymore, “But, Annabeth, we need to talk about what he was saying.” Jason shifted on his feet uneasily. Whoever freaked out Joseph must have been incredibly strong, and he could only think of one person who wanted everyone dead.
“I know,” she sighed, “I’ll call a meeting between the cabin councilors when he wakes up.”
“Ok,” Jason replied, “I'm going back to my cabin then. I want to be fully rested for the meeting. You should do the same.” With those final words, Jason turned to exit the room.
However, before his hands could grab the door handle, Annabeth called out with her hand stretched forward. She paused, hesitating on saying something else before resolving herself. “But how does he know you?”
Jason hesitated, unsure if it would be okay to reveal this information before deciding it would be better to just reply. “He’s been attending Camp Jupiter for almost 10 years now,” then adding, “But how does he know you? He’s roman.”
“He goes to Camp Half-Blood in the summer. He’s in the same cabin as me and was the old councilor. And he's greek.”
Jason shook his head not wanting to get into an argument. “Whatever, we can ask him when he wakes up. I’ll see you at the meeting.” And with that he left the room with a feeling in his gut that said everything would change in the meeting.