โ€•thirty. well, that was certainly weird

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โ—คย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย โ—ฅ
๐˜๐Ž๐” ๐–๐ˆ๐“๐‡ ๐Œ๐„,
๐’๐”๐๐„๐‘๐Œ๐€๐?
โ—ฃย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย โ—ข

CHARLIE HALF EXPECTED HERSELF TO BREAK DOWN. The sounds reminded her of her last battle, the constant clanging of weapons, yells, commands, and screams of pain ricocheted around her. It was all so overwhelming. She tried to focus on Thalia, but her voice sounded so far away, distant. It was hard to concentrate. The small spikes on her arms that had grown back were standing, her neck was constantly covered in goose bumps. Was she shaking?

Closing her eyes, Charlie paused, trying to grow accustomed to the sounds around her before they became tooย distracting.

Another sound joined the crowd.

''โ€”lie? Charlie!'' It was Leo. Her eyes slowly blinked open, he was holding her by the upper arms, faintly the rest of her friends could be seen making their way to the ruined mansion. He shook her again and her eyes went back to his. ''Are you alright?''

Her voice cracked, making what she said indistinguishable. She cleared her throat and tried again. ''Yeah. Yeah, Curls. I'm sorry.''

His shoulders relaxed slightly. ''Okay,'' he breathed, ''Okay, justย โ€” let me know if we need to get you out of here.''

She felt like she had let him down.

The only one of their team who could call back on previous knowledge and experience, and she was too caught up in the sounds, the sounds of all things, to even try aid them.

She'd make it up to them.

Her own arm rose, patting his shoulder. Giving a stiff nod, Leo couldn't get out another word before she moved out of his hold, axe anxiously swinging in her hands as she locked onto a target.

Leo and Charlie didn't have much distance to catch up on, Piper, Jason, and Thalia hadn't made it very far, only a few metres distance.

Charlie's movements went from hesitant to sharp within moments. All she had done was approach a wolf, and when it lunged at her... it was like a switch was flipped. Not one of her actions was a mistake, all skilfully thought out and planned within a seconds preparation. The wolf hadn't stood a chance.

And once she had entered soldier mode, they made distance within seconds. Charlie was moving faster than any of them combined, no longer laced with a blue hue, so it wasn't her newly discovered powers, just, pure conditioning; time had made her actions rapid, not giving any of their enemies a chance to dodge or flinch back.

''Charlie! Duck!'' Came from behind her. Charlie did as told. A dagger whipped over her head, trimming a few strands of her hair, and it wedged itself into an Earthborn's eye. He fell back with a thud.ย 

Charlie pulled it out, getting mud and eye-guts on herself. She span quickly. ''Let me return the favour!'' Thalia ducked without a second thought. It sliced down a wolf's stomach. Thalia rolled it over with her foot, pulling her weapon back out.

The two worked like a well-oiled machine.

Jason's fighting was good too, but he couldn't pick up on their expressions and code-words laced with inside jokes. He stuck to carving the way through the crowd as Leo and Piper took on what they could, not fearing what would happen if they made a mistake as the two girls were everywhere at once, covering their every angle.

When Jason stepped over the threshold, he immediately collapsed.

''Hey!'' Leo caught him. ''None of that man. What's wrong?''

''This place...'' Jason shook his head, clapping Leo on the shoulder as he tried to stand straight. ''Sorry, it just came rushing back to me.''

''So, you have been here?'' Piper said.

Charlie was the last over the threshold, barricading the door. It didn't do much, due to there being holes in the walls, and one of the walls being completely missing, but it at least limited the sides they had to cover by one.

''We both have,'' Thalia said as she and Charlie moved back to back, faintly pressing against each other as hey spun, waiting for the next attack. Her expression was grim, like she was reliving someone's death. ''This is where my mum took us when Jason was a child. She left him here, told me he was dead. He just disappeared.''

''She gave me to the wolves,'' Jason murmured. ''At Hera's insistence. She gave me to Lupa.''

''That part I didn't know,'' Thalia frowned, becoming unfocused for a split second as her eyes flittered to Jason. Charlie pressed further into her, warning her. ''Who is Lupa?''

An explosion shook the building. Just outside, a blue mushroom cloud billowed up, raining snowflakes and ice like a nuclear blast made of cold instead of heat.

''Maybe this isn't the time for questions,'' Leo suggested. ''Show us the goddess.''

Once inside, Jason seemed to get his bearings. The attacks became more slim, none of the enemies bothering to follow them in. Oddly, it made Charlie even more on edge.

The house was built in a giant U, and Jason led them between the two wings to an outside courtyard with an empty reflecting pool. At the bottom of the pool, just as Jason had described from his dream, two spires of rock and root tendrils had cracked through the foundation.

One of the spires was much biggerย โ€” a solid dark mass about twenty feet high, and to Leo it looked like a stone body bag. Underneath the mass of fused tendrils Charlie could make out the shape of the head, wide shoulders, a massive chest and arms, like the creature was stuck waist deep in the earth. No, not stuck. Rising.

On the opposite end of the pool, the other spire was smaller and more loosely woven. Each tendril was as thick as a telephone pole, with so little space between them that Leo doubted he could've gotten his arm through. Still, he could see inside. And at the centre of the cage stood Tia Callida.

She looked exactly like Leo remembered: dark hair covered with a shawl, the black dress of a widow, a wrinkled face with glinting, scary eyes.

She didn't glow or radiate any sort of power. She looked like a regular mortal woman, his good old psychotic babysitter.

Leo dropped into the pool and approached the cage. ''Hola, Tia. Little bit of trouble?''

She crossed her arms and sighed in exasperation. ''Don't inspect me like I'm one of your machines, Leo Valdez. Get me out of here!''

Thalia stepped next to him and looked at the cage with distasteย โ€” or maybe she was looking at the goddess. ''We tried everything we could think of, Leo, but maybe my heart wasn't in it. If it was up to me, I'd just leave her in there.''

''Ohh, Thalia Grace,'' the goddess said. ''When I get out of here, you'll be sorry you were ever born.''

''Save it!'' Thalia snapped. ''You've been nothing but a curse to every child of Zeus for ages. You sent a bunch of intestinally challenged cows after my friend Annabethโ€”''

''She was disrespectful!''

''You plagued Charlie with hallucinations of usโ€”''

''She was the closest to you at the time!''

''She was my girlfriendโ€”''

''Exactly! Without my doing, you wouldn't even be a Hunter!''

''You dropped a statue on my legs.''

''It was an accident!''

''And you took my brother!'' Thalia's voice cracked with emotion. ''Hereย โ€” on this spot. You ruined our lives. We should leave you to Gaea!''

''Hey,'' Jason intervened, his soft voice a nice change from the constant yelling. ''Thaliaย โ€” sisย โ€” I know. But this isn't the time. You should help your Hunters.''

Thalia clenched her jaw. ''Fine. For you, Jason. But, if you ask me, she isn't worth it.''

Thalia turned, she smiled at Charlie, the two repeating the symbol they had made when last separated, this time hands touching to complete the heart. Thalia leaped out of the pool, and stormed the building.

Leo turned to Charlie with a raised eyebrow. ''Girlfriend?''

Charlie grinned at him. ''I know, right? I got game.''

''Focus on the cage,'' Hera grumbled, arms crossed. ''And Jason โ€” you are wiser than your sister. I chose my champion well.''

''I'm not your champion, lady,'' Jason said. ''I'm only helping you because you stole my memories and you're better than the alternative. Speaking of which, what's going on with that?''

He nodded to the other spire that looked like a king-sized granite body bag. It had grown since they had gotten there.

''That, Jason,'' said Hera, ''Is the king of the giants being reborn.''

''Gross,'' Piper wrinkled her nose.

''Indeed,'' Hera said. ''Porphyrion, the strongest of his kind. Gaea needed a great deal of power to raise him againย โ€” my power. For weeks, I've grown weaker as my essence was used to grow him a new form. Behind these bars, the only use I have is transferring energy.''

''So, you're like a heat lamp,'' Leo guessed. ''Or fertilizer.''

The goddess glared at him, but Leo didn't care. This old lady had been making his life miserable since he was a baby. He totally had rights to rag on her.

''Joke all you wish,'' Hera said in a clipped voice. ''But at sundown, it will be too late. The giant will awake. He will offer me a choice: marry him, or be consumed by the earth. And I cannot marry him. We will be destroyed. And as we die, Gaea will awaken.''

Leo frowned at the giant's spire. ''Can't we blow it up or something?''

''Without me, you do not have the power,'' Hera said. ''You might aw well try to destroy the mountain.''

''Been there, done that.''

''Just hurry up and let me out!'' Hera demanded.

Jason scratched his head. ''Leo, can you do it?''

''I don't know,'' Leo tried not to panic. ''Besides if she's a goddess, why hasn't she busted herself out?''

Hera paced furiously around her cage, cursing in Ancient Greek. ''Use your brain, Leo Valdez. I picked you because you're intelligent. Once trapped, a god's power is useless. Your own father trapped me once in a golden chair. It was humiliating! I had to begย โ€” begย โ€” for my freedom and apologize for throwing him off Olympus.''

Leo shrugged. ''Seems fair.''

''I told you, I'm only capable of transferring my energy into a vessel โ€” in this case, Poryphion. I cannot, as you say, bust myself out.'' Hera gave him the godly stink eye. ''I've watched you since you were a child, son of Hephaestus, because I knew you could aid me at this moment. If anyone can find a way to destroy this abomination, it is you.''

''But it's not a machine. It's like Gaea thrust her hand out of the ground and...'' Leo felt dizzy. The line of their prophecy came back to him: The forge and dove shall break the cage. ''Hold on. I do have an idea. Piper, I'm going to need your help. And we're going to need time.''

The air turned brittle with cold. The temperature dropped so fast, Charlie's lips cracked and her breath turned to mist. Frost coated the walls of the Wolf House. Venti rushed inย โ€” but instead of winged me, these were shaped like horses, with dark storm-cloud bodies and manes that crackled with lightning. Some had silver arrows sticking out of their flanks. Behind them, came red-eyed wolves and six-armed Earthborn.

Piper drew her dagger. Leo reached into his tool belt, but he was so shaken up, all he produced was a tin of breath mints. He shoved them back in, hoping nobody noticed, and drew a hammer instead. Charlie and Jason stepped forwards, forming the front line. Charlie span her axe like it was a lightsabre. Jason grabbed an ice-covered plank off the pool floor.

Charlie turned to look at Jason, a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, that gleamed with a dim glow. ''You with me, Superman?''

He grinned back. ''To the end, you sexist pig.''

Charlie tilted her head back, cackling with laughter.

One of the wolves padded forward. It was dragging a human-size statue by the leg. At the edge of the pool, the wolf opened its maw and dropped the statue for them to seeย โ€” an ice sculpture of a girl, an archer holding a dagger, with short spikey hair and a surprised look on her face.

''Thalia!''

Jason moved forward, but Charlie held her arm out, her elbow bumping into his chest as she glared forwards. The ground around Thalia's statue was already webbed with ice. Charlie feared that if they'd touch it, they'd freeze too.

''Who did this?'' Jason yelled. His body crackled with electricity. ''I'll kill you myself!''

From somewhere behind the monsters, they heard a girl's laughter, clear and cold. She stepped out of the mist in her snowy white dress, a silver crown atop her long black hair. She regarded them with those deep brown eyes that had been once thought to be so beautiful, back in Quebec.

''Bon soir, mes amis,'' said Khione, goddess of snow. She gave Leo a frosty smile.ย  ''Alas, son of Hephaestus, you say you need time? I'm afraid that is the one tool you do not have.''

Jason had his sister at his feet. He was surrounded by monsters. He'd broken his golden sword and replaced it with a piece of wood. He had approximately five minutes until the king of the giant busted out and destroyed them. His assets, were one whiny and imprisoned goddess, one sort-of-girlfriend with a dagger, an unbiological sister with a death wish, and a best friend who apparently thought he could defeat the armies of darkness with breath mints.

On top of all this, Jason's worst memories were flooding back. He knew for certain he'd done many dangerous things in his life, but he'd never been closer to death than he was right now.

The enemy was beautiful. Khione smiled, her dark eyes glittering, as a dagger of ice grew in her hand.

"What've you done?" Jason demanded.

"Oh, so many things," the snow goddess purred. "Your sister's not dead, if that's what you mean. She and her Hunters will make fine toys for our wolves. I thought we'd defrost them one at a time and hunt them down for amusement. Let them be the prey for once."

The wolves snarled appreciatively.

"Yes, my dears." Khione kept her eyes on Jason. "Your sister almost killed their king, you know. Lycaon's off in a cave somewhere, no doubt licking his wounds, but his minions have joined us to take revenge for their master. And soon Porphyrion will arise, and we shall rule the world."

"Traitor!" Hera shouted. "You meddlesome, D-list goddess! You aren't worthy to pour my wine, much less rule the world."

Khione sighed. "Tiresome as ever, Queen Hera. I've been wanting to shut you up for millennia." She waved her hand, and ice encased the prison, sealing in the spaces between the earthen tendrils. "That's better," the snow goddess said. "Now, demigods, about your deathโ€”''

"You're the one who tricked Hera into coming here," Jason said. "You gave Zeus the idea of closing Olympus."

The wolves snarled, and the storm spirits whinnied, ready to attack, but Khione held up her hand. "Patience, my loves. If he wants to talk, what matter? The sun is setting, and time is on our side. Of course, Jason Grace. Like snow, my voice is quiet and gentle, and very cold. It's easy for me to whisper to the other gods, especially when I am only confirming their own deepest fears. I also whispered in Aeolus's ear that he should issue an order to kill demigods. It is a small service for Gaea, but I'm sure I will be well rewarded when her sons the giants come to power."


"You could've killed us in Quebec," Jason said. "Why let us live?"

Khione wrinkled her nose. "Messy business, killing you in my father's house, especially when he insists on meeting all visitors. I did try, you remember. It would've been lovely if he'd agreed to turn you to ice. But once he'd given you guarantee of safe passage, I couldn't openly disobey him. My father is an old fool. He lives in fear of Zeus and Aeolus, but he's still powerful. Soon enough, when my new masters have awakened, I will depose Boreas and take the throne of the North Wind, but not just yet. Besides, my father did have a point. Your quest was suicidal. I fully expected you to fail."

"And to help us with that," Leo said, "you knocked our dragon out of the sky over Detroit. Those frozen wires in his headโ€”that was your fault. You're gonna pay for that."

"You're also the one who kept Enceladus informed about us," Piper added. "We've been plagued by snowstorms the whole trip."

"Yes, I feel so close to all of you now!" Khione said. "Once you made it past Omaha, I decided to asked Lycaon to track you down so Jason could die here, at the Wolf House." Khione smiled at him. "You see, Jason, your blood spilled on this sacred ground will taint it for generations. Your demigod brethren will be outraged, especially when they find the bodies of these two from Camp Half-Blood. They'll believe the Greeks have conspired with giants. It will be... delicious."

Jason knew. His memories were returning enough for him to realize how dangerously effective Khione's plan could be.

"You'll set demigods against demigods," he said.

"It's so easy!" said Khione. "As I told you, I only encourage what you would do anyway."

"But why?" Piper spread her hands. "Khione, you'll tear the world apart. The giants will destroy everything. You don't want that. Call off your monsters."


Khione hesitated, then laughed. "Your persuasive powers are improving, girl. But I am a goddess. You can't charm-speak me. We wind gods are creatures of chaos! I'll overthrow Aeolus and let the storms run free. If we destroy the mortal world, all the better! They never honored me, even in Greek times. Humans and their talk of global warming. Pah! I'll cool them down quickly enough. When we retake the ancient places, I will cover the Acropolis in snow."

"The ancient places." Leo's eyes widened. "That's what Enceladus meant about destroy the roots of the gods. He meant Greece."

"You could join me, son of Hephaestus," Khione said. "I know you find me beautiful. It would be enough for my plan if these other two were to die. Reject that ridiculous destiny the Fates have given you. Live and be my champion, instead. Your skills would be quite useful."

Leo looked stunned. He glanced behind him, like Khione might be talking to somebody else. Leo didn't have beautiful goddesses make him offers like this every day. Then he laughed so hard, he doubled over. "Yeah, join you. Right. Until you get bored of me and turn me into a Leosicle? Lady, nobody messes with my dragon and gets away with it. I can't believe I thought you were hot."

Charlie winced. ''Oo, poor choice or words,'' she muttered.

Khione's face turned red. "Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold."

Khione's face turned red. "Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold."

She shot a blast of wintry sleet at the demigods, but Leo held up his hand. A wall of fire roared to life in front of them, and the snow dissolved in a steamy cloud.

Leo grinned. "See, lady, that's what happens to snow in Texas. Itโ€”freakingโ€”melts."

Khione hissed. "Enough of this. Hera is failing. Porphyrion is rising. Kill the demigods. Let them be our king's first meal!"

Jason hefted his icy wooden plank โ€” a stupid weapon to die fighting with. Charlie spotted it and straight away she was out of her fighting stance. ''Oh, for gods sake, Jay, just take my other dagger,'' she rolled her eyes, holding it out to him. He took it was a lopsided grin.

The monsters were patient enough to wait for the interaction to be over, or maybe they were confused as to why Charlie wasn't at all panicked, before they charged.

A wolf lunged itself at Charlie. She stepped back and swung, the flat side of her axe hitting the beast's snout with a satisfying crack. Maybe only silver could kill it, but a good old fashioned

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