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CHAPTER SIX
one eyed terror

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THE COLD AIR had Dorothy praying that Josephine packed a jacket for her, and it was like her prayers were answered. Dorothy's favorite jacket was pulled out of her bag. Whether Josephine knew it was her favorite when she packed it, or if it was just the only jacket that would be good for a broad amount of different climates, Dorothy didn't care and she quickly put it on, a shiver of warmth had her settling in her seat.

"You were amazing, Piper," Jason told the girl in front of Dorothy.

"You really were, you saved our asses so many times tonight," Dorothy smiled brightly, "whatever that charm speak thing is, it's mighty useful."

Piper had a troubled look on her face, she tried sending an appreciative smile to the two of them, but something was seriously weighing on her. Dorothy knew that she probably didn't want to talk about it but she couldn't help herself. She leaned forward to get closer to Piper's ear.

"Are you alright?" Dorothy asked, pulling Piper's attention to her, "You look like something is on your mind, and it's troubling you."

"Si vous saviez la vérité sur moi, vous ne penseriez pas que j'étais si incroyable," Piper spoke, making Dorothy tilt her head in confusion.

"What'd you say?" Jason asked.

"I said I only talked to Boreas. It wasn't so amazing." Piper didn't look at either Dorothy or Jason, making her squint her eyes. She wasn't being honest about something.

"Hey," Jason said, "you saved us from joining Khione's subzero hero collection. I owe you one."

"We both do," Dorothy said.

Piper didn't say anything after that, guilt seemed to cross her face but Dorothy knew that when the time came, Piper would eventually have to say something. They just needed a minute to relax and start a game plan for how they're going to track down and capture these winds.

Leo passed them some sandwiches from his pack. He'd been quiet ever since they'd told him what happened in the throne room. "I still can't believe Khione," he finally said. "She looked so nice."

"Trust me, man," Jason said. "Snow may be pretty, but up close it's cold and nasty. We'll find you a better prom date."

"What's prom?" Dorothy asked, making Leo gasp as he looked back at Dorothy who was now chewing on the sandwich, it was good and she realized that she hadn't eaten all day, it wasn't anything she wasn't used to.

"What were you doing all day back then?" Leo asked.

"Well when it wasn't camp chores with Jon—" she cut herself off from saying his full name, distaste roiling in her gut at the thought of that traitor, "I was scouting out stages and trains with expensive cargo, maybe hunt down a bounty or two if the local town didn't know me, and if the bounty wasn't something I couldn't handle alone."

Something crossed Leo's face, it seemed that her answer only got more questions.

"You're like, old," He finally said, making Dorothy blink back in shock.

"I'm 16," Dorothy frowned, "Hera and that damned Saloon, I should've just cut my losses with that traitorous coot but I spent so much time preparing for that train that I didn't think to question why he would stop in that saloon."

"How does that place even work?" Jason asked, after swallowing another bite of his sandwich, "How long were you in there?"

"It felt like I was in a haze for a few months, I had forgotten why I was in there in the first place," Dorothy frowned as she looked down at her food, "you may have noticed based on how different my clothes are to you guys, but when I went in, the year was 1862, Chiron told me that I was in there for a hundred and fifty years..."

Dorothy's eyes began to well up at the fact that she left her father. In her mind, regardless of her mother being an immortal goddess, she felt that she was an orphan. She knew absolutely nobody on this earth now, well, she knew Jonathon was still there, but she would let him rot in there for all she cared, after all, he stole the damn money in the first place, and now look where she was at.

There were no more questions after that, just silence and the sounds of chewing. They ate their sandwiches as they flew. Dorothy figured that the pouched belt that Leo wore around his waist had similar enchantments to her satchel, he could probably carry anything in that.

Dorothy's mind traveled to the information Boreas gave them. She wasn't particularly excited to go to Chicago, the last time she visited, she ended up leaving with a 3 thousand-dollar bounty on her head with the rest of her father's gang. It's what pushed them west, it's where she heard of the train full of rich aristocrats heading to California.

Surely her bounty is gone now that she's believed to be dead, but this new information about Chicago sent a chill down her spine, Boreas had only let them go because he reckoned they were already on a suicide mission.

The moon rose and stars shined in the sky, reminding her of the stargazing she would do with one of the few women in the gang, Adelia, her father had taught her how to navigate the stars like how he learned when he first escaped the south. And Adelia had taught her how to navigate it too. Dorothy looked for Orion's sword, finding that it was just below his belt. Noticing it almost immediately, she could see that they were heading in the right direction and she wondered if this was what their prophecy meant, her navigating the stars to lead them to Hera.

Piper's head started to droop and eventually, she leaned back into Dorothy for support. She didn't mind and gave her a pat on the shoulder before checking to see if a blanket was packed into her satchel. There wasn't one, but Piper didn't seem to need one anyway.

"She seemed troubled by something," Dorothy spoke when Piper was deep in her sleep, "she's holding onto something."

"How could you tell?" Jason asked.

"It's the same way I could tell that you felt out of place back at camp," Dorothy shrugged, "I'm good at reading people, I had to be, it's the only way I could tell when a situation was about to go south."

Jason nodded. Leo looked back at Piper's sleeping figure, he too had a troubled look on his face, Dorothy wanted to ask about the fire that the Boreas nearly killed him over, but it would be better for Piper to be awake for that conversation, and the girl needed to rest. It was quiet once more as Dorothy kept her eye on the stars.

It was nearly peaceful, Dorothy looked down at the city and town lights, she never thought that the earth could shine so bright, yet there it was. It was like a constellation of its own on the Earth, all the lights forming new patterns to navigate, nothing ever the same.

"The Earth is so," Dorothy tilted her head, looking for the word, "beautiful."

Jason didn't have a chance to respond before Festus hit an invisible wall forcing his head to go sideways, crashing and knocking them all off his back. Dorothy instinctively wrapped her arms tight around Piper, the girl was still sleeping but she figured it wouldn't be for long. Dorothy's stomach lurched as the speed of their fall seemed to increase, it took everything in her to keep her sandwich down. She couldn't help her scream.

Piper woke up screaming as they were free-falling through the air. Dorothy couldn't control her cussing as her mind scrambled on what to do next.

She looked over and saw that Leo was falling faster and shot right past them. His own screams and curses were being taken by the howling wind.

Far below the city lights glimmering in the early dawn, we're getting closer, Dorothy's heart thundered in her chest as she looked over and saw several hundred yards away, the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like it was going to try and slow its fall with the flame.

Leo's screaming brought her attention to him as he was frantically grabbing at the clouds.

"Not coooooool!"

Jason was behind her, already in action.

"Piper!" Jason yelled out, "Grab onto Dorothy!"

Piper managed to get her arms around Dorothy as tightly as possible, her face buried into Dorothy's shoulder. Dorothy looked back and over her shoulder to see Jason desperately trying to get down to them, his body pin straight and his head downwards.

"Dorothy! Spread your arms and legs out!" Jason yelled for her. Dorothy nodded and opened up her body. The impact of the wind wasn't as bad with Piper attached to her so tightly.

Jason caught up to the girls and he wrapped his arms around Dorothy, using his powers to slow their fall.

"We have to get Leo!" she shouted.

Their fall slowed as Jason controlled the winds, but they still jumped up and down like the winds didn't want to cooperate.

"Gonna get rough," Jason warned. "Hold on!"

"TO WHAT?" Dorothy yelled, but it turned into a scream as they dived again, her eyes watering from the steaming stream of wind blowing into her face, her hair blowing behind her head.

Dorothy managed to hold onto Jason and Piper tightly as they plummeted. Dorothy's vision grew dark and blurry and she felt like the breath was knocked from her lungs when they slammed into another warm body— Leo, still wriggling and cursing.

"Stop fighting!" Jason said. "It's me!"

"My dragon!" Leo yelled. "You gotta save Festus!"

Dorothy looked up at Jason and it was clear that he was already struggling to keep the four of them from splattering onto the Earth below them. There was no way he could help a fifty-ton metal dragon. She opened her mouth to disappoint Leo, but she heard an explosion below them. A fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobbed.

"Festus!"

Jason's face reddened with strain as he tried to maintain an air cushion beneath them, but intermittent slow-downs were the best he could manage. Rather than free-falling, it felt like they were riding a wild, bucking, horse that refused to break. There was a reason Dorothy only did that kind of chore on an empty stomach.

She didn't even think when she pushed her hands out in front of her, Piper's grip never relenting as she even wrapped her legs around Dorothy in a desperate attempt to not fall to her death.

A blanket of purple energy spread out before them, blocking most of the wind and giving Jason some reprieve. Her arms shook with the strain as she fought the furious wind that refused to behave. She felt ripples running up and down her arms from her shoulders to the tips of her fingers, this had to be an effect of her powers. Sweat formed on her brow that would cool her face instantly when it dried later from the remaining wind.

As they wobbled and zigzagged, Dorothy could barely see the details of what she assumed was a factory, smokestacks that she was all too familiar with seeing in cities like Chicago. There was a paved lot full of more of those strange snow-covered machines she saw outside Boreas's hotel. They were still too high in the air when Jason groaned, "I can't-"

And they dropped like stones. Panic flooded Dorothy's senses and sent a blast at their feet, pushing them sideways and had them crashing through the roof of the nearby warehouse. Instinct took over when Piper released Dorothy. The girls tried landing on their feet but Dorothy rolled her body, spreading the impact.

Unfortunately, Piper didn't do the same. The poor girl yelped as she crumpled against the cold metal surface. Piper didn't do anything but groan and wobble on her back, the pain clearly overwhelming her. Dorothy scrambled over to her, her wide eyes assessing Piper's foot that was definitely facing the wrong direction.

"Piper! Dorothy!" Jason's voice called out from below, "Where are the girls?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Guys, where'd you go?"

"We're over here!" Dorothy yelled out, "Piper's hurt!"

She heard shuffling and grunting, then feet pounding on metal steps. Dorothy assessed their surroundings, looking for anything to help her set Piper's foot. She had seen an injury like this once before and she knew that the fact that Piper wasn't screaming shows that she had true strength under her skin.

They were on a metal catwalk that ringed the warehouse interior. Leo and Jason had landed on ground level and were now running up the stairs toward them. Piper looked at her foot, and Dorothy swore that Piper looked to be turning a shade of green. She looked away almost immediately after, not wanting to see that.

The hole they'd made in the roof was a jagged circle. Dorothy could barely process the fact that they survived a fall like that, even with her last-minute assist at the end. There were a few dim light bulbs scattered around the ceiling, doing nothing for the group in ways of lighting. Strange paint covered the wall near Piper, Dorothy wondered how such a design could be made to be so flat, all of the best art that she's managed to see is a little red with the texture of acrylic with the vents and blossoms of a paintbrush, but this clearly painted wall was... flat.

Down in the shadowy warehouse, there were more huge machines that Dorothy could only assume were advanced versions of the machines she'd seen in her time. This warehouse seemed to be building more of the machines that sat in the lot outside, collecting snow. And dust. This place looked like it had been abandoned for years.

Jason and Leo reached the girls and Dorothy anticipated disgust with Piper's odd foot angle. She started to dig around her satchel, looking for anything to help keep Piper's foot together once it was set. She seemed to have everything except for what she needed.

Leo started to ask, "You okay...?"

Then he saw her foot, his face contorting into a cringe.

"Oh no, you're not."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Piper groaned.

"You'll be fine," Jason said, though Piper could hear the worry in his voice. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"

"Yeah-yeah, sure." He dug around in his belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of... something— both of which seemed too big for the belt's pockets. Dorothy tilted her head at the quickness of the supplies. Those were some seriously good enchantments.

"How did you-" Piper tried to sit up and winced. "How did pull that stuff from an empty belt?"

"Magic," Leo said. "Haven't figured it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff."

He reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. Dorothy furrowed her eyebrows as she looked on.

"Breath mint?"

Jason snatched away the mints. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?"

"I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car..." He snapped his fingers. "Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp— Rambo food?"

"Ambrosia, dummy," Piper said through gritted teeth. "There should be some in my bag if it's not crushed."

Jason carefully pulled her backpack off her shoulders. He rummaged through the supplies that Piper had packed and pulled out a plastic bag full of smashed pastry squares like lemon bars. He broke off a piece and fed it to her.

When Piper bit in, her expression turned from confusion to something Dorothy could only call melancholy. Piper's eyes seemed to water slightly as she looked at the bag Jason still held.

"More," she said.

Jason frowned. "Piper, we shouldn't risk it. They said too much could burn you up. I think we should try to set your foot."

"Have you ever done that before?"

"I have." Dorothy finally spoke again, her mind finished up on trying to wrap itself around her situation, "Jumping off a train that's in motion can be harder than it looks."

The group paused at her admission, all eyes on her, it seemed they were trying to figure out what to say if they wanted to say anything at all. Leo was the first to jump back into action, he found an old piece of wood and broke it in half for a splint. Then he got the gauze and that odd roll ready.

"Hold her leg still," Dorothy told Jason. "Piper, I'm gonna be plain with you, this is going to hurt."

Dorothy reached into her satchel and pulled out a bundle of clean socks, she balled the fabric up tighter and Piper all but snatched it in understanding. Her knuckles are white with the tension in her grip.

Jason held her leg firmly as Dorothy took hold of her foot. Her eyes narrowed, she recalled everything she remembered that day, and everything Juan told her later about doing it the right way.

Dorothy was swift, not wanting to inflict any more pain than what Piper was already feeling. Piper flinched so hard, she punched Leo in the arm, and he yelled almost as much as she did. Dorothy was handed the strange roll, the gauze, and the sticks. Dorothy furrowed her eyebrows as she held up the roll and Leo widened his eyes and grabbed the roll, picking at the side until the roll seemed to undo itself with a strange noise. She tilted her head at the noise.

"Is that tape?" She asked, "Oh dear, give me that."

Dorothy shook her head at her own stupidity. She knew what tape was, but her group never had much need for it beyond when Juan was patching someone else up, it was just that his tape wasn't as strong. She was quick to set the splint, wrapping the gauze tightly around her ankle. everything else came together quickly. Piper was finally coming to when Dorothy finished up. She assessed her foot, a frown carved into her face from the residual pain.

"Ow," she said

"Jeez, beauty queen!" Leo rubbed his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."

"Sorry," she said. "And don't call me 'beauty queen,' or I'll punch you again."

"You all did great." Jason found a canteen in Piper's pack and gave her some water.

Dorothy looked around now that they could finally calm down a little bit now. Outside, the wind howled, its threatening chill made Dorothy shudder. Snowflakes filtered through the hole that the group made in the roof. Despite their meeting with Khione, Dorothy could only remember the winter that the gang spent trapped on a mountain the circumstances weren't pleasant, but Clara, the youngest girl in the group other than Dorothy made the time bearable. One day, Dorothy would crack open her friend's journal, she hoped that the gang was still alright after she... disappeared.

"What happened to the dragon?" she asked. "Where are we?"

Leo's expression turned sullen. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall."

Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are..."

It was hard to see through the paint. Dorothy squinted as she tried to decipher the words. Monocle Motors, Assembly Plant 1.

"Closed car plant," Leo said. "I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit."

Dorothy sighed as she looked around. Detroit wasn't too bad the last time she had passed through the city, she was curious now as to what it looked