Here we go again... Dear Gods, I am insane for doing this. But then again, re-writing HOO with my own ideas is too appealing to pass up.

The full summary is here:

Jason wakes up on a bus, with no memories... but if that's the truth, then why can he recall blazing green eyes?

Sephie doesn't know who she is... but she knows that she hates Hazel's golden eyes and loves Octavian's blues - and she hates herself for it.

Gaea may be the main threat to both Romans and Greeks, but the secrets Juno locked away in Jason's and Sephie's heads may be even more dangerous: they could start another Trojan War between demigods after all.

And the gods? They're trying to search for their Sea Princess without Zeus/Jupiter noticing and battling their schizophrenia at the same time. Their success rate? Zero.

Are you ready? Good. Let's dive into Lost Hero!

Where... am I?

The subtle shaking under him, the uncomfortable seat and smell… school bus.

How do I know that?

Jason's head was filled with far too many questions and not enough answers. Okay, dude, calm down… let's figure out what do you know.

My name is Jason…

He hit the blank. What was his surname?

The uncomfortable weight settled over his heart and made him swallow bile. If he couldn't recall his entire name, would he be able to recall anything at all? He knew he was in the school bus, surrounded by the kids – presumably his classmates – but he could not connect any names to their faces. Hades, he didn't even know which school he was enrolled in, much less where they were!

Hades?

That little word seemed important, so Jason stored in his memory, and continued searching through his mind, keeping his eyes closed in feigned sleep. Maybe the triggers for the memories he couldn't find would come to him like that.

"Hey, Jason! Stop pretending to be asleep, we're here!"

That shocked the boy out of his thoughts and made him open his eyes fully. Blinking to adjust to the new level of sunlight, he looked closely around. He was sitting next to a cute, Native-looking girl and holding hands with her, and in front of them was the Latino boy leaning over the bus seat with a smirk of a troublemaker.

Jason tilted his head, trying to recall their names, but the now-familiar blank was the only answer his mind conjured up.

"So, the sleeping beauty awakens! Careful, you'll steal Beauty Queen's title if you continue like that!" The boy winked at him and the girl scowled at him, her other hand shooting to deliver a whack over the boy's head.

"I told you not to call me that, Leo!"

One half of the mystery solved – Leo. Jason would've preferred the full name, but he could work with Leo. Now, he only needed three more things – name of the school, girl's name and the exact location.

Fly, and you'll know where you are.

Jason had no idea why that thought popped up, but he dismissed it and returned to the verbal fight his apparent friends had over the girl's name.

"But it suits you, Beauty Queen!"

Leo ducked under another slap and resurfaced with a miniature Philips screwdriver, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"My name is Piper, Leo Valdez! Repeat after me: Pi-per!"

"Nope! You're a Beauty Queen! Right, Jase?"

Jason suddenly found himself dragged into the fight, and he felt a little like a deer in the headlights under the twin stares of his friends. How should he answer? Apparently, he and the girl – Piper – were a thing, but she and Leo had a sort of easygoing relationship found in the good friends, and Leo was looking at him like he was asking for a backup.

Choices, choices…

"You are beautiful, Piper," he said in the best diplomatic voice he could muster, raising his arms in surrender. He was not going to take sides!

But not as beautiful as her.

That made Jason freeze. Did he…? Was he…?

The briefest flash of the stormy green eyes and wild inky locks flashed in front of his eyes, and Jason grabbed onto the image with the strength of the drowning man. He had a past! He remembered someone! Granted, he had no name for the girl (?) in his memory, but he knew without doubt she was the key to his past. Whoever she was, she had the answers, and Jason was ready to go to the end of the world to find her.

"Jase? Jason, you okay my man?"

Leo was trying to catch his attention, and Piper looked worried as she clutched his hand.

"No, Leo, I'm not," Jason breathed, closing his eyes look at those strange and familiar eyes again. "I don't know where I am, who I am, or who are you two to me."

Piper flinched and covered her mouth, and Leo frowned at him.

"C'mon Jase, it's not funny. This is not a cool prank."

"It's not a prank," Jason stood up, gently disentangling his and Piper's hand. "I don't know anything – Hades, I don't even know my last name!"

Liar. You know her!

That doesn't count, Jason replied savagely to his consciousness. I don't know her name!

"Huh? It's…" Now Leo looked confused, and Piper scrunched her eyebrows, making Jason bite his lip. Not even his supposed friend and girlfriend knew who he was. Wonderful.

She knows.

I know, stupid, Jason thought as he walked through the nearly empty bus to the teacher chaperone. Give me a mo', and I'll go and search for her.

"Uh, sir?"

The teacher turned suddenly, swinging his bat around so fast Jason had to duck to avoid it colliding with his head.

"It's Coach Hedge, cupcake!" the teacher shouted at him, and Jason backpedaled hastily, hand going straight for his jeans pocket. To his surprise, he found a golden coin inside.

Ivlivs, his brain supplied him with the information, and Jason nearly tore his jeans in rush to get the coin out. He could feel the smile splitting his face nearly in half as he read the inscription Ivlivs on the small round piece of metal. This was important – this meant something.

"Who are you?"

Coach's voice returned him to the reality, where Jason found himself on the other side of a, frankly, very intimidating gaze. He refused to back down, though.

"I'd tell you if I knew it myself, Coach."

The man scowled, sniffing for a second before twirling the bat in his hand threateningly.

"You seem to believe it, cupcake."

"I'm not lying!" Jason crossed his arms, Ivlivs clutched tightly in his palm. "I only remember my first name and a girl's face!"

The man's scowl deepened.

"A name and a face? I don't believe you, cupcake. Showing up out of nowhere -"

"You don't have to," Jason snarled, pushing past the man. "I'll go and find the answers myself. After all," he added quietly to himself, "how many green-eyed, black-haired girls can be out there?"

An arm landed on his shoulder and tugged him back. Jason hissed and whirled around, shifting the coin to lie on the thumb of his fisted right hand. The yelps of surprise from Leo and Piper were drowned by the sudden look of interest from Coach Hedge. Jason took a step back, falling into a stance his mind could not remember.

"Green-eyed, black-haired girl, cupcake? What kind of green were her eyes?"

Jason blinked at the question. How did the man hear him? He made sure not to speak loudly – in fact, he did not speak of the girl until he got out of the bus.

This man… he wasn't entirely normal.

The sad thing was, Jason had a feeling he and the girl in his memories weren't, either.

"Like a storm," Jason finally said after a few seconds. "Constantly changing, like a sea."

The pause that followed was heavy with expectation. Suddenly, Coach Hedge cursed colorfully and slammed the bat to the ground.

"I changed my mind, cupcake. You're coming with us."

"Us? Who's us?" Leo was asking five minutes later as the Coach dragged him, Jason and Piper to the observation deck overlooking the Grand Canyon. Jason for his part did not speak a word, opting for the careful watch of his surroundings. A bad feeling descended on him the moment they entered the glass-and-chrome building, so he kept an eye out and coin ready. What the coin would do, he had no idea, but his instincts told him to be ready.

"Coach? Please can you tell us?" Piper begged, but the coach ignored them, focusing more on Jason.

"I'm guessing you know what you're doing."

"Sort of," Jason murmured, his eyes setting on his terrible copy as the danger claxons in his head became louder. That guy was bad news. "But I'd like to get out of here as fast as we can."

"They sent the extraction team already," Hedge snorted. "'Special package', they said. I was wondering… of course they would send the full cavalry for the slightest lead. That Jackson girl means too much to too many people."

"Jackson?"

The name caused a wave of nausea, and Jason doubled over as his vision momentarily whitened out. Never speak of Persephone Jackson again to anyone. The double overlayer of tenor and baritone sent spikes of fiery terror through his lungs and heart.

"Jason!"

"Jason, dude!"

"Don't… I can't…" Jason gasped; he felt the overwhelming urge to say something, but the words escaped him as the fire spread from his chest to his limbs, forcing him on his knees. Please, please, make it stop! "Ignosce me! Et non dimiserunt eam mane! Quaeso, Domine Mercurius!"

The fire calmed down at the exclamation, retreating from his limbs and forming a hollow ball around his heart. It still hurt, but Jason could ignore this level of pain, and most importantly, he could move and speak freely.

"Duck!"

Coach did not question his command for a second: he pushed Jason's friends and threw himself on them, narrowly avoiding a bolt of lightening from a flying vortex of black occupying the same spot the boy Jason had pegged as danger before.

Ventus.

"What the hell, Dylan?" Leo screamed, and Jason ducked out of the way of the second bolt.

"That's not Dylan!" Coach Hedge snarled, jumping to his legs with astonishing grace, and kicked off his shoes. "Jason-whoever-you-are, get those two out to the skywalk! Leave the bastard to me!"

Jason gaped for a second, a single piece of information coming to him and fritzing his mind. Faun?

"Satyr!" Hedge snapped. Had he said that aloud? "And that's not important now! Get. Them. Out!"

"Ave!" came unbidden from Jason's lips, and he grabbed Piper's hand to help her up. After doing the same to Leo, he pushed them through the glass doors to the skywalk.

"Jason, Jason!" Piper yelled as the winds started blasting them on the skywalk. "What's going on?!"

"Monster attack," Jason let his instincts answer as he rubbed the coin, ready to flip in into the sky. "Now just keep your eyes out – monsters rarely hunt alone."

"Hunt what alone? Crazy kids?" Leo shouted over the thunderstorm whipping up around the skywalk. "And we have to get back inside! Help Coach Hedge!"

"No!" He didn't know why, but Jason knew that returning inside would be their worst mistake. "Coach said extraction team is coming – we've got to wait!"

"Easy for you to say, dude!" Leo yelped as the newest gust of wind blew him to the railing, his back connecting with the cold metal. "Owowowowow! This hurts!"

"Just stay back and keep your eyes open!" I can't protect you otherwise.

Somehow, both Piper and Leo understood the unspoken message, and Jason felt his heart skip a beat for a second at the sight of their determined faces. Whatever happened before – whatever made him lose his memories – they still knew a part of him.

Now, they only needed to stay alive long enough for the extraction team to pick them and Coach up – if the guy was still alive after a clash with a ventus. He couldn't explain it, but he had little faith in Hedge lasting long. But then again… he had seemed perfectly fine with that. In fact, he looked like sacrificing himself for the others was part of the job.

Jason couldn't help but admire him a little. Jumping the bullet on a regular basis for the kids you don't know well? That took guts.

The glass door bursting open snapped Jason back to reality, and he turned to the source of commotion. Coach Hedge was still alive – looking a bit singed and scruffed, but otherwise fine – but so was the ventus Leo called Dylan. That was not good.

Where was the extraction team?

"You're pretty good for an old-timer," the ventus chuckled as he sent another arc of lightning after Coach. "I guess the Council is not entirely senile. Then again, it helps having someone who knows their job, no?"

"Shut up and fight me, cupcake!" Hodge yelled, jabbing the bat – or was it a branch? Jason could not be sure from this angle – at the storm spirit.

Dylan chuckled again and opened his mouth again, but before he could speak, a silver streak sped past him and buried into the glass, cracking it in the place.

"Arrow?" Jason blinked at Piper's question. Yes, it was an arrow… but why did Dylan look terrified at the sight?

"Get back!"

A girl shouted from behind, and Jason ran back to Leo and Piper. It was just in time: an enormous bolt of lightning crackled over their heads and collided with the ventus, sending him shrieking backwards.

"Whoa!" Jason heard Leo mutter behind him.

"Hunter," ventus hissed acidly, standing up and facing the newcomers. "And a lieutenant, to the boot."

"Gotta admit," the girl from before said nonchalantly, walking up to Jason and his friends. "I've never met anemoi thuellai who were not affected at least a little by my lightning. Then again, with the things my sisters and I have seen, it's not like you can die that easily right now, am I right?"

"Clever girl," the storm spirit nodded grudgingly. "But you can't defeat me. Your lightning cannot kill me."

"Maybe not," the girl shrugged, "but I dare you to fight me and Jason at the same time. After all," and Jason could hear a nasty smile in her voice, even though he could not see her face without turning his back to the monster, "you know what they say: two kids of Zeus are better than one."

Two kids of Zeus are better than one. That sentence resonated with Jason in the most nostalgic of ways. Son of Jupiter, someone crooned into his ear, and Jason smiled. Yes, that was who he was.

Son of the Sky God.

The ventus snarled.

"You may have won this time, Thalia Grace, but you will not have much time to rejoice! My mistress has plans for your cousin and brother -"

"Your mistress can go to Tartarus," the girl, Thalia, nocked another silver arrow. "And you can go and prepare her a welcome party!"

The arrow disappeared from the bowstring: the next thing Jason saw, was the arrow dropping from the midair into the pile of the golden dust which were blown apart by the weakening winds.

"Well, that was one rude monster," Thalia huffed. "Didn't give me enough time to bring out Aegis and give him a proper scare."

"When they said they're bringing full cavalry, I didn't expect the lieutenant of Artemis," Coach picked himself up from the skywalk where the storm spirit tossed him. "But damn girl, you didn't let me have any fun with the little shit!"

"No worries," Thalia waved the complaint away. "With the way things are looking right now, you'll soon have hands full with keeping those bastards properly dead. And I wasn't sent by the camp – I was in the area, hunting for the clues on Sephie, and sensed an unnatural thunderstorm. Since it didn't feel like Dad or Lord Poseidon's influence, I decided to check it out. Good thing I did," here she smiled and turned to Jason. "Hello, little brother."

Jason could only gape.

The true extraction team showed up not five minutes later – enough time for the shock to settle somewhat and Thalia to pepper Jason with questions.

"So you only remember your first name and Sephie's face?" Thalia frowned. "That sounds a lot like Lethe's work… but to remember something so specific… I don't know. I'll tell Annabeth to hook you up with Cabin 15 and see what they can do. Memories don't just disappear."

"Yeah… sis," Jason tried the new word out, and was rewarded with a small smile.

"I missed you, Jason," Thalia hugged him. "After you disappeared… well, I couldn't stay with Mom in the same house. I ran away, and she got herself killed in the car crash couple of years ago."

"Was she – what kind of Mom was she?" Jason wanted to know, his heart beating heavily against the ring of fire inside his chest, painfully reminding him of the voice he had heard.

Never speak of Persephone Jackson to anyone again.

Thalia's face darkened.

"Bad enough you shouldn't miss her. Now," she pushed him gently to the chariot with the extraction team, "I have to go back to the Hunters. Annabeth will take care of you until you get into the swing of things. Oh, and Jason?"

"Yes?"

"Set your sights on the girls you can have," she winked at him, and Jason flushed. How did she know? "Sephie's spoken for."

"And her beau is not the one you want to piss off," Butch, the chariot driver snickered. "Remember Austin?"

"Gods, don't remind me," Annabeth groaned. "I had to listen to Cabin Seven's moaning for two days straight! Next time someone manages to offend a god enough to destroy their cabin, I'm not designing them a new one!"

"Her beau?" Leo asked, hopping a little in the place.

"Sephie's dating a god," Thalia smirked. "My and Jason's half-brother, actually: Hermes."

"A god?" Piper's voice was faint, and Leo stilled for a second. Jason could not fault them. Dating a god? Not that she wasn't pretty – because even from a glimpse he had seen, she was gorgeous, and the picture Thalia showed him of her, Sephie and Nico Di Angelo (son of Hades) only cemented that impression, but a god?

"Yup. It's really complicated, but somehow they made it work," Annabeth tapped the edge of the chariot with her knife. "Now get onboard, Lightning Boy; I want to return to Camp as fast as possible."