ELYSIAN, the riordanverse

26

LIVING

Jason Grace was sixteen years old when he died.

He went to Elysium. The Underworld's heaven. The hero's paradise.

He met up with some old friends, people he hadn't seen in years, demigods he'd once trained with. And though, he couldn't quite feel the sunlight scorching his skin, or remember the exact color of Piper's eyes, he was happy.

Jason had the chance for rebirth, the chance for the Isles of the Blest, but he decided to stay in Elysium for a bit.

Wait for his friends.

He knew it would be a while till they joined him, he hoped it would be a while.

So, he waited. He spent his time sitting in meadows, laughing with new and old friends who were now his family. When he shook hands with heroes of all generations, he flashed back to sitting in the legion's classroom, studying the myths he had heard so many times it was like they had been inscribed into his skin.

And so far, Elysium was good and our hero was happy.

Every once in a while, he went back to the mortal world, as nothing more than a wisp of smoke, a ghost of a boy who was once alive. His friends could never see him, of course, and he couldn't visit too often or Hades would get mad.

But, the time he spends here, in the land he used to call home, he savors it and holds it close.

Jason runs alongside his sister and Reyna, during one of their many hunts. When Thalia draws her bow, he adds a quick flash of electricity to it, just enough to immobilize the animal.

Piper curls up on the front porch of her dad's cabin in Oklahoma, reading an old book about Cherokee myths. She falls asleep as another girl, one with a rhinestone nose stud smiles and sits down next to her. As the two lovers fall asleep, still on the steps, Jason tucks a blanket around them.

Leo and Calypso sit in the forge in the Waystation, surrounded by bolts and pieces of scrap metal and notebooks with everything from algebraic equations to badly written essays for school. Calypso writes down another formula, sighing as she crumples it up and throws it away. Leo complains about his newest machine not starting. Jason gives it a spark, just a small one, and the engine roars to life.

Percy and Annabeth walk the streets of New Rome, laughing about the time Percy went on a marine biology expedition and stayed underwater for three times longer than he was supposed to. Jason pulls up a chair at the cafe next to them and smiles.

Chiron organizes another game at Camp Half-Blood. Will runs around frantically as he tries to find the bottle of unicorn draught he'd kept in his pocket for emergencies. He kneels down in front of Nico as Jason sends a gust of wind towards them. The wind carries the bottle to Will and Jason smiles.

Frank and Hazel lead the legion, and if you're ever in trouble during a battle, your next sword strike hits with a little more power than you thought you had. And that thunderstorm up ahead? It's the sign of a friend.

***

Jason Grace died when he was sixteen years old. 

But he's never stopped living.