A bigger Body for a bigger Soul Part 1

The sounds of battle roared in the background. Inside the dark cave, Leo Valdez made his heartfelt plea to the motionless body before him and the empty broken orb that held something very precious just minutes ago.

“Please Superman… come back to us, we… I need you… please.” The boy held the limp body in an embrace. His cheeks wet as tears streamed from his eyes. The dark circles under them were testament of the physical and mental strain he had during the past months. It all came down to this point and things were not going according to plan, they almost never did, but this time… this time they had to… they had to.

Leo couldn’t hear as Percy screamed and a loud torrent of water roared echoing in the cave walls just a few chambers away. No, he could only listen to deafening silence. The sound of his failure. He did everything right and yet, nothing happened. His mind was racing as he wondered if he could have done something different, if he  acted sooner, if he had used other materials, if he had…

Just before the last strand of sanity and hope vanished, Leo heard it. Loud as a drum. A heartbeat. His eyes went wide as he looked down at the blond boy in his arms. He didn’t say anything, almost too stunned to do anything but watch.

The body started emitting a faint glow that increased into an intense light. Leo placed the body back on the ground as he screamed the name of the one he lost. Suddenly there was a bright burst of colors like a small supernova right in front of his eyes. Then he noticed, a small twitching in those eyes, followed by a very slow blinking.

Jason opened his eyes and saw his best friend so close to him. Everything was fuzzy, he didn’t understand what was going on, but somehow Leo looked different. His eyes looked sunken with deep dark circles under them. His skin clung closer to his bones as if he had not eaten in a while, his skin looked dry and pale and his expression was something he had not seen before. A mixture of pain and happiness as tears couldn’t stop streaming down.

Jason felt weak, confused, he was not sure why but he could barely move. Despite that, he couldn’t stop himself from raising his arm and wiping the tears from his friend’s cheeks. It pained him to see Leo like that. Leo said something barely audible to him and then he felt his warm embrace. He wanted to say something but he was not sure if he could muster a word.

Everything was suddenly a blur. Leo was trying to pick him up, but he was having trouble doing that. Jason somehow didn’t have the strength to stand up by himself and he could only see as Leo struggled to help him. He briefly closed his eyes and then felt as if he was somehow being carried away. He opened his eyes again, but there was so much light and noise that he had to close his eyes again. There were a lot of voices surrounding him, but he didn’t feel scared. He felt peace, he felt warmth.

He opened his eyes once again and he was in a very different place. He could feel himself surrounded by a soft bed, comfy pillow and plush sheets. To the right, there he was once again, Leo Valdez, he seemed to be sleeping slumped on a chair. The boy fell asleep as he watched over him, completely drained from the adrenaline that was the only thing keeping his body in motion. Seeing him so at peace made Jason smile.

He didn’t feel like waking him up, he felt still very confused and had a lot of things he wanted to ask, but he also felt very tired so he closed his eyes once again and he drifted to sleep..

When Jason opened his eyes once more,  Leo was still sitting next to the bed fidgeting with something in his hands. As Jason stirred, Leo reacted  in surprise and delight. “Jason!” He screamed as he launched himself on the bed to hold his friend tightly. “I missed you”.

Jason was very surprised by the sudden emotional outburst, but he welcomed the warm embrace of Leo.

Leo then pushed himself away in a panicked state. “Oh sorry! Hope I didn’t hurt you or anything. Are you ok? Can you talk?”

That was a good question, and he was not sure of the answer himself, he somehow felt odd as if he had a lump in the back of his throat. So he simply tried. “Hhhh eee…” His voice came out as broken grunts. Jason became concerned. He wondered what was happening to him.

Leo noticed this and tried to console him and reassure him that he would be ok. He told him he didn‘t need to worry and that his voice would come back soon just by practicing. He instructed him to just try to answer with his head for now. Jason nodded in response.

“Do you… remember what happened?” -Jason shook his head.
“Oh… you… must… have many questions.” -Jason nodded.
“Do you feel ok?” -Jason thought about it for a few seconds and then shrugged.
“Does anything hurt?” -Jason once again shook his head.
“I see.. so… you are not sure how you feel. Is it  like… a weird feeling?” -Jason nodded.
“Yeah I guess that is to be expected…I… am not sure how much I should tell you right now.” Leo looked down, he didn’t know how Jason would react to everything that happened, but then Jason placed his big hand on his shoulder and grunted a garbled “P     l e a        s e” at him.

Leo was concerned, but he looked Jason in the eyes and understood his feelings.
“Jason… you… I don’t know how else to tell you this but…you died.” Leo said with his voice almost breaking.

Jason was confused, he was not sure if he heard that last part right. That made no sense to him. It was not possible, and yet, seeing his friend so concerned for him told him that he did not misunderstand. He had so many questions, he tried to rack his brain, but everything was still very fuzzy and could just remember vague things. He had some broken pieces of memories that looked like a fight, but everything felt so surreal, like a dream dreamt long ago.

Leo grabbed Jason’s hand and held it tight. “Are you ok?” -Jason nodded and then tried to speak again. “W h a t  h a p p e n e d?” He managed to say in a  very raspy and deep voice.

As Leo opened his mouth he was interrupted by a loud muffled roar coming right from Jason’s stomach. Leo looked up and noticed Jason was turning very red in the face. “S o r r y”.
Leo bursted out laughing. No need to apologize, It makes sense that you are hungry. Don’t worry I will bring you breakfast ok?

Jason smiled at him as Leo left the room. He was left there in bed trying to piece together the fragments of memories in his mind when just after a few minutes Leo came back carrying a huge metal tray filled with delicious breakfast items.

Jason was amazed not just because everything looked delicious, but because everything seemed freshly made. He wondered how Leo managed to do all that and if he was just waiting for him to wake up.

Leo saw Jason’s amazement and confusion as he entered the room. “As much as I would like to say I prepared all this for you, this is not my doing. Percy is to thank for this. He came by to visit you earlier, you know? He brought this and… Oh well… I guess he also didn’t really prepare this himself but… well… huh… that is also quite the long story… I will tell you about that later, for now you should enjoy your food.” Leo placed the tray over Jason’s legs and proceeded to unfold the sides of the tray to reveal 2 legs that sat sturdily on the bed. 

Jason was amazed by the display in front of him. There was a tower of pancakes dripping with maple syrup, and adorned with an assortment of fruits. There were eggs, bacon, bread, butter, and a platter with cold cuts and cheese. His mouth was watering as he took everything in.

He tried grabbing the fork but his hands felt weird and the fork kept slipping through his fingers.
“It’s ok if you just want to use your hands, you know? I know it might be a little difficult to control your hands after everything you went through."

Jason hesitated for only an instant as his hunger overpowered him and pushed him to grab the first piece of bacon with his hand. He was at least able to hold the bacon albeit a little clumsily, but he managed to put the piece of meat in his mouth. The bacon was crispy but thick and juicy,  and had a delightful smoky aroma. It tasted just like bacon, but somehow it also tasted like so much more, like there were depths of flavors he could not fully grasp. He was barely done chewing when he reached for the top pancake and gave it a bite. Once again the flavor was better than any pancake he had tasted before, the pancake was fluffy, buttery and warm as if it had just come out of the pan. The sensation in his mouth was so delicate that it felt like it was melting in his mouth.

Leo watched with a smile as Jason enjoyed his first meal. It was such a small thing, but it gave him comfort knowing that Jason was alive and well. 

Meanwhile Jason kept eating everything on the plate ravenously as if he hadn’t eaten in a long time,which, to be fair, was very true. 

His clumsy movements became more precise and faster as he emptied the tray with his hands. Leo was amazed by just how much Jason was able to pack in, he just couldn’t fathom being able to eat even half of that breakfast.

As he ate, Jason felt a surge of energy and contentment. Every taste was a celebration, every texture a reminder of life’s simple pleasures. Every bite filled him with comfort, delight and gratefulness to be alive.

Finally the last morsel disappeared and barely any crumbs were left over the tray. Jason laid back letting out a big sigh that was interrupted by a stifled burp. He looked at Leo trying to apologize for his manners, but he just chuckled and proceeded to remove the tray to place it on the nightstand.

“I hope you had your fill. How are you feeling? Is everything ok?” -Jason nodded.
“Do you still want to hear about what happened?” - Jason nodded again.
“Ok.”

“I… I am not sure where to start. After you were gone I thought… I thought you were in a better place… maybe It was just me trying to convince myself… I tried so hard to believe that but… strange things started to happen. Things that I tried to brush off at first, but that little by little led me to believe that something was wrong. I thought I was going crazy, I thought that maybe I was just feeling lonely and depressed… I had just broken up with Calypso… my mind was not in a  good place… I thought that I just missed you too much… you know… talking with you… hanging out with you… maybe I just needed a friend so my brain was making things up… until it all became too much and too real and decided to ask for some help.”

“I went to Nico trying to figure out what was going on. He confirmed that you were indeed dead, which crushed me, but also he felt something strange about you. I told him that for a while now, I thought I could hear your voice, well maybe it was more like a feeling, as if you were screaming for help. I told him how concerned I was about you, so he ended up asking his father for help. Hades ended up finding out something terrible. Your death had been tampered with, your soul never arrived at its rightful resting place… you were missing.”

Jason was shocked hearing all of this. He truly had no memory of anything of his afterlife.
“W h a t  h a p p e n e d ?”

“Some bad people stole your soul. They… they needed a powerful soul like yours to fulfill a ritual. I… I am so sorry I could’t help you before… I… I truly wanted to help you as soon as possible but… there were a lot of problems we needed to solve before that.”

Jason tipped his head to the side inquisitively.

“Well first, we needed to find the ones behind your kidnapping, second we didn’t really know how they managed to pull all that off but we thought that maybe they trapped your soul somehow. If we managed to rescue you we couldn't just let your soul out because well… your soul no longer had a body to return to. So… I kind of took inspiration from my father and… well… I made you a new body.”

Jason’s eyes were wide as saucers. “Y O U  W H A T ?”

“Well it was not just me, I had to ask a lot of favors, but of course everyone joined forces once they knew what was going on.”

Jason looked down at his own body and started touching his chest, arms and abs. He then looked around the room, noticing a big full length mirror on a wall. Leo understood immediately what Jason wanted and helped him out of the bed. 

Jason felt strange standing up. His legs wobbled, but Leo was there to his side. “It’s ok you can lean on me.” They both walked carefully to the mirror so Jason could see his new body. He was very surprised when he saw his reflection.
“N o t  a  r o b o t ?”
Leo bursted out laughing. “No Superman, you are not a robot, you are the real deal.”

Jason took some time checking himself out and inspecting his body with his hands. He started wondering if he was always that tall and… buff. He then flexed in front of the mirror, he didn’t remember being that muscular before.
“I… I might have taken some creative liberties… sorry if… something is not exactly the same.” Leo apologized a little ashamed.

“T h a n k  y o u.” Jason said, turning to Leo. He still couldn’t fully wrap his mind around everything that Leo said, but he knew his friend went to great lengths just to save him. He wanted to say so much more, but just as he took another step another loud guttural sound came from his stomach.

“Heh, it seems like your stomach is enjoying the breakfast.” Leo said, trying to make fun of it. Jason however felt a little concerned as he placed his hand over his chiseled stomach. The sensation he was feeling was not from digestion, but… “H u n g r y.”

Leo chuckled but then noticed that Jason was not kidding. “Huh? What? Wait really?”

Jason timidly nodded but then questioned: “H o w ?”

“I am not sure… Maybe it's because your body needs the extra energy? I honestly don’t know… this is my first time making a human body you know. It’s not like I had time to practice.” Jason chuckled hearing Leo’s answer, however he still felt a little ashamed of looking like a glutton after his friend already brought him that amazing breakfast “S o r r y”.

“Hey don’t worry big guy, no need to apologize for anything.”
“But… the food.” Jason pointed at the empty food tray.
“Oh that? Heh… want to see a magic trick?” Leo walked out of the room and quickly returned with a very ornate metal cover that fit perfectly on the food tray.
Jason saw with confusion as Leo excitedly held the food tray covered. 

“Are you ready?! TA-DA!” Leo made a big display opening the tray to reveal a steaming tower of pancakes covered in maple syrup and whipped cream.

Jason was taken aback. He was equal parts surprised and excited as he realized he would be able to taste the delicious breakfast he just had once again.

“This thing here will fill with food after it gets covered once again. It’s not like it will produce food infinitely, but Percy said it could last at least for a week or so. Oh yeah Percy brought this from his… uhh… I guess there are A LOT of things you need to catch on to. Would it be ok if we move to the dinner table so we can keep talking while you eat?”

Jason nodded emphatically and slowly made his way to the table, ready to devour his second breakfast.