Chapter 13
Piper was breathing hard, but she smiled up at Jason as the battle seemed to hit a lull. “Nice horse.” Tempest reared on his hind legs, arcing electricity across his hooves. A complete show-off.
They all heard a cracking sound from the same direction. The melting ice on Hera’s cage sloughed off in a curtain of slush, and the goddess called, “Oh, don’t mind me! Just the queen of the heavens, dying over here!”
Jason dismounted and told Tempest to stay put. The three demigods jumped into the pool and ran to the spire. They all failed to fight the urge to roll their eyes at the goddess.
Leo frowned. “Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?”
“No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry!”
As much as Jason disliked Hera, what he saw inside the cage alarmed him. Not only was Hera sinking, the ground was rising around her like water in a tank. Liquid rock had already covered her shins. “The giant wakes!” Hera warned. “You only have seconds!”
“On it,” Leo said. “Piper, I need your help. Talk to the cage.”
“What?” she said.
“Talk to it. Use everything you’ve got. Convince Gaea to sleep. Lull her into a daze. Just slow her down, try to get the tendrils to loosen while I—”
“Right!” Piper cleared her throat and said, “Hey, Gaea. Nice night, huh? Boy, I’m tired. How about you? Ready for some sleep?” The more she talked, the more confident she sounded. Jason felt his own eyes getting heavy, and he had to force himself not to focus on her words. It seemed to have some effect on the cage. The mud was rising more slowly. The tendrils seemed to soften just a little—becoming more like tree root than rock. Leo pulled a circular saw out of his tool belt. How it fit in there, Jason had no idea. Then Leo looked at the cord and grunted in frustration. “I don’t have anywhere to plug it in!”
The spirit horse Tempest jumped into the pit and whinnied. “Really?” Jason asked having understood the meaning behind it. Tempest dipped his head and trotted over to Leo. Leo looked dubious, but he held up the plug, and a breeze whisked it into the horse’s flank. Lighting sparked, connecting with the prongs of the plug, and the circular saw whirred to life.
“Sweet!” Leo grinned. “Your horse comes with AC outlets!”
Their good mood didn’t last long. On the other side of the pool, the giant’s spire crumbled with a sound like a tree snapping in half. Its outer sheath of tendrils exploded from the top down, raining stone and wood shards as the giant shook himself free and climbed out of the earth.
Enceladus might have been scary, but Porphyrion was so much worse. Porphyrion was taller, and absolutely ripped. While he didn’t radiate heat, or breathing fire, there was something more terrible about him. A kind of strength, almost magnetism, the giant was so huge and dense he had his own weak gravitational field. Like Enceladus, the giant king was humanoid from the waist up, clad in bronze armor, and from the waist down he had scaly dragon’s legs; but his skin was the color of lima beans. His hair was green as summer leaves, braided in long locks and decorated with weapons, daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of them bent and bloody, trophies taken from demigods and heroes eons before. When the giant opened his eyes, they were blank white, like polished marble. He took a deep breath.
“Alive!” he bellowed. “Praise to Gaea!”
Jason made a heroic little whimpering sound he hoped his friends couldn’t hear. He was very sure no demigod could solo this guy. Porphyrion could lift mountains. He could crush Jason with one finger. “Leo,” Jason said.
“Huh?” Leo’s mouth was wide open. Even Piper seemed dazed.
“You guys keep working,” Jason said. “Get Hera free!”
“What are you going to do?” Piper asked. “You can’t seriously—”
“Entertain a giant?” Jason said. “I’ve got no choice.”
“Excellent!” the giant roared as Jason approached. “An appetizer! Who are you—Hermes? Ares?”
Jason thought about going with that idea, but something told him not to. “I’m Jason Grace,” he said. “Son of Jupiter.” Those white eyes bored into him. Behind him, Leo’s circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. “Outstanding!” He looked up at the cloudy night sky. “So, Zeus, you sacrifice a son to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you.”
The sky didn’t even rumble. No help from above. Jason was on his own. He had to buy Leo and Piper time, and he couldn’t do that without a proper weapon. His wand wouldn’t do nearly enough against this guy. It was time to act a whole lot more confident than he felt. A trick he mastered watching Hari taking Lupa’s lessons steps farther.
“If you knew who I was,” Jason yelled up at the giant, “you’d be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I’m going to send you right back to Tartarus.”
The giant’s eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. “So ... we’ll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tartarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus’s queen.” He grinned at the goddess’s cage. “Hello, Hera.”
“My husband destroyed you once, monster!” Hera said. “He’ll do it again!” She still didn’t seem to understand she was supposed to be dead and Zeus was too.
“But he didn’t, my dear! Zeus wasn’t powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth—and we will destroy you at the roots.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Hera said, but she was weakening. Jason could hear it in her voice. Piper kept whispering to the cage, and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera’s prison, covering her up to her waist.
“Oh, yes,” the giant said. “The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned.”
The giant frowned at Piper and Leo, as if he’d just noticed them working at the cage. Jason stepped forward and yelled to get back Porphyrion’s attention. “You said a demigod killed you,” he shouted. “How, if we’re so puny?”
“Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus’s replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, child, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!”
He rose to his full height and held out his hand. A twenty-foot spear shot from the earth. He grasped it, then stomped the ground with his dragon’s feet. The ruins shook. All around the courtyard, monsters started to regather, storm spirits, wolves, and Earthborn, all answering the giant king’s call.
Porphyrion raked his spear across the top of the ruins, destroying a chimney and spraying wood and stone across the courtyard. “So, Child of Zeus! I have finished my boasting. Now it’s your turn. What were you saying about destroying me?”
Jason looked at the ring of monsters, waiting impatiently for their master’s order to tear them to shreds. Leo and Piper didn’t have time to get distracted by their new enemies. Leo’s circular saw kept whirring, and Piper kept talking, but it seemed hopeless. Hera’s cage was almost completely filled with earth.
“I’m the Son of Jupiter!” he shouted, and just for effect, he summoned the winds, rising a few feet off the ground. “I’m a Child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion.” Jason didn’t know quite what he was saying, but he rattled off the words like he’d said them many times before. He knew he was off but that didn’t matter at that moment. He held out his arms, showing the tattoo of the eagle and SPQR, and to his surprise the giant seemed to recognize it. For a moment, Porphyrion actually looked uneasy. “I slew the Trojan Sea monster,” Jason continued. “I toppled the Black Throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I’m going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves.”
Jason launched himself at the giant, determined to tear him apart. The idea of fighting a forty-foot-tall immortal bare handed was so ridiculous, even the giant seemed surprised. Half flying, half leaping, Jason landed on the giant’s scaly reptilian knee and climbed up the giant’s arm before Porphyrion even realized what had happened.
“You dare?” the giant bellowed.
Jason reached his shoulders and ripped a sword out of the giant’s weapon-filled braids. He yelled, “For Rome!” and drove the sword into the nearest convenient target…the giant’s massive ear. Hari would laugh herself silly when she heard about this, Nico wouldn’t be much better. They were also the ones that taught him that surprise worked a hell of a lot better then planning in situations like this. He was going to fully admit they were right to their faces when he got back.
Lightning streaked out of the sky and blasted the sword, throwing Jason free. He rolled when he hit the ground. When he looked up, the giant was staggering. His hair was on fire, and the side of his face was blackened from lightning. The sword had splintered in his ear. Golden ichor ran down his jaw. The other weapons were sparking and smoldering in his braids. Porphyrion almost fell.
On Olympus Hades cringed, his aim with the Master bolt needed some serious work. But he’d been more interested in not kill his son’s boyfriend. Nico wouldn’t talk to him again if he did. Hephaestus was shaking his head as Athena rolled her eyes. “Next one’s mine” Hestia claimed watching beside him as she held out her hand for the master Bolt. Hades obliged her.
The circle of monsters let out a collective growl and moved forward. The wolves and ogres fixing their eyes on Jason getting stunned by a mass spamming of small lighting bolts no one really noticed. “No!” Porphyrion yelled. He regained his balance and glared at the demigod. “I will kill him myself.” The giant raised his spear and it began to glow. “You want to play with lightning, boy? You forget. I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you.” Something in Porphyrion’s voice told Jason he wasn’t bluffing.
Jason and his friends had had a good run. The three of them had done amazing things. Yeah, even heroic things. But as the giant raised his spear, Jason knew there was no way he could deflect this strike. This was the end.
“Got it!” Leo yelled just in time.
“Sleep!” Piper said, so forcefully, the nearest wolves fell to the ground and began snoring.
The stone and wood cage crumbled. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage’s connection to Gaea. The tendrils turned to dust. The mud around Hera disintegrated. The goddess grew in size, glowing with power.
“Yes!” the goddess said. She threw off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewelry. Her face was both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glowed in her long black hair. “Now I shall have my revenge!”
The giant Porphyrion backed away. He said nothing, but he gave Jason one last look of hatred. His message was clear: Another time. Then he slammed his spear against the earth, and the giant disappeared into the ground like he’d dropped down a chute. Around the courtyard, monsters began to panic and retreat, but there was no escape for them.
Hera glowed brighter. She shouted, “Cover your eyes, my heroes!”
Jason was too much in shock at their sudden survival. He understood too late. He watched as Hera turned into a supernova, exploding in a ring of force that vaporized every monster instantly. Jason fell, light searing into his mind, and his last thought was that his body was burning.
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“Nico is going to end her…” more then a few Gods muttered.
“She just ended herself…” Aphrodite complained
“There’s still Juno” Hades stated working on something in the corner with Hephaestus and Hestia, the Master Bolt between them.
Hades had looked at the Master Bolt and had an idea… they would after all need a new God of the Sky… Nico was a Prince of the Underworld and Hades did need to give a few little Divinities in the Underworld to someone… Of course, the Master Bolt had some limitations on it… Hestia had agreed easily enough. Hephaestus was easily convinced, for a few free pot shots at Aphrodite and Ares, to willing connect Jason and the bolt. Jason wouldn’t be able to immediately wield it of course, he’d need something to learn with in the mean time.
Hestia was giving Hades a bit of a look “We’ll convert him” Hades muttered with a knowing smile.
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“JASON!” Piper kept calling his name as she held him, though she’d almost lost hope. He’d been unconscious for two minutes now. His body was steaming, his eyes rolled back in his head. She couldn’t tell if he was even breathing.
Piper hadn’t seen the goddess go nuclear then apparently vanish. Thankfully she’d closed her eyes, but she could see the aftereffects. Every vestige of winter was gone from the valley. No signs of battle, either. The monsters had been vaporized. The ruins had been restored to what they were before, there was no evidence that they’d been overrun by a horde of wolves, storm spirits, and six-armed ogres.
The Hunters had been revived too. Most waited at a respectful distance in the meadow, but Thalia knelt by Piper’s side, her hand on Jason’s forehead, Luna standing beside her with her hand on Thalia’s shoulder waiting for something. Thalia glared up at the sky and screamed “That Bitch is the most useless Goddess Ever!”
“Um ...” Leo frowned. “True form is bad, right? So why did she do it?”
Luna answered him “A god is pure energy in their true forms. In doing so she disintegrated the monsters, restored this place, and even melted the ice around us Hunters.”
“But mortals can’t look upon them in that form!” Thalia shouted. “She killed him!”
Leo shook his head in dismay. “That’s what our prophecy meant. Death unleashed, through Hera’s rage. She didn’t even care enough about her so-called Champion to bring him back.”
Piper half heard their conversation, but mostly she was focused on Jason’s face. “He’s breathing!” she announced. She wasn’t imagining things; it was a lucky for them side-effect of what Gaea had done. “Jason,” Piper called, putting every bit of her willpower into his name. She could not lose him. “Listen to me. You can do this. Come back. You’re going to be fine.”
Nothing happened. Not due to her power, or Jason’s lack of will to follow it, but a third party doing a little ‘Fuck You’ to Gaea, Hera, and Zeus.
“Healing is not a power of Aphrodite,” One of the other hunters said regretfully. “We need an Apollo child for that.”
“Jason,” Piper said again, and she imagined her voice resonating through the earth, all the way down to the Underworld. “Wake up.”
Jason gasped, and his eyes flew open. For a moment they were full of light, glowing pure gold. Then the light faded and his eyes were normal again. “What—what happened?” Jason asked confused.
There was a resounding cheer in the area as Thalia felt pure relief. Piper wrapped him in a hug until he groaned, “Crushing me.”
“Sorry,” she said, so relieved, she laughed while wiping a tear from her eye.
Thalia gripped her brother’s hand. “How do you feel?”
“Hot,” he muttered. “Mouth is dry. And I saw something... really terrible.”
“That was Hera,” Thalia grumbled. “Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon.”
Piper helped Jason to his feet and gave him the last nectar from their supplies.
“Where is she?” Jason asked
“Gone” everyone around him answered in near unison.
“Oh...”
Thalia turned to Piper “You’ve got spirit, Piper.” She pulled a silver card from her parka and tucked it into the pocket of Piper’s snowboarding jacket. “You ever want to be a Hunter, call me. We could use you.”
“You were awesome Beauty queen. I think you’re the only one who can say you resurrected someone with just your voice.” Leo grinned getting hugged for the commentary. “Though I don’t suppose that Porphyrion guy just melted and died, huh?”
“We weren’t so lucky.” Jason stated “He ran away. But we bought ourselves time. Where is he?”
A sense of dread washed over Piper. She remembered what Porphyrion had said about killing the Olympians by pulling up their roots. Greece. She looked at Thalia’s grim expression, and guessed the Hunter had come to the same conclusion. Leo was already there and Jason had figured it out now too.
“I need to find Annabeth,” Thalia said. “She has to know what’s happened here.”
“Thalia ...” Jason gripped her hand. “We never got to talk about this place, or—”
“I know.” Her expression softened. “I lost you here once. I don’t want to leave you again. But we’ll meet soon. I’ll rendezvous with you back at Camp Half-Blood.” She glanced past them and gasped loudly as her hunters started to rally for another battle. There at the edge of the clearing was Cerberus the size of a small house. He ignored all the hunters as he approached the Children of Zeus.
“Hey boy.” Jason greeted and the heads all licked him with his tail wagging making all the hunters stand there stunned. Luna was full-on howling in laughter. Thalia smiled.
“Will you’ll see them back to camp half-blood safely?” Thalia asked realizing it might actually be a good thing to have her brother dating a Son of Hades.
Cerberus barked and got down on his belly so they could climb on.
Thalia gave Jason a hug and said her good-byes. When the Hunters were gone, the courtyard seemed strangely quiet. The dry reflecting pool showed no sign of the earthen tendrils that had brought back the giant king or imprisoned Hera. The night sky was clear and starry. The wind rustled in the redwoods. Piper thought about that night in Oklahoma when she and her dad had slept in Grandpa Tom’s front yard. She thought about the night on the Wilderness School dorm roof, when Jason had kissed her—in her Mist-altered memories, anyway.
Leo easily climbing onto Cerberus already thinking riding on his back was better then hanging by his coat. Jason boosted Piper up behind him. Jason ended up not behind Piper like he intended but between his friends. They both seemed particularly concerned and clingy. Jason smiled as he had his arms around Leo who was patting Cerberus’s shoulder to get them moving.
“Jason, what happened to you here?” Piper asked her arms around his waist. “I mean, I know your mom abandoned you here. But you said it was sacred ground for demigods. Why? What happened after you were on your own?”
Jason shook his head uneasily. “It’s still murky. The wolves ...”
“Just try, any answer is better then nothing.” Leo stated “you might even be able to sort it out by talking.”
Jason sighed his nose in Leo’s hair smelling like fire in the common room. Jason scowled at what was going though his head “I was given into Hera’s service because she forced my mom to. The so-called Queen of the Gods couldn’t stand knowing Zeus had two children with my mom. Knowing that he’d fallen for her twice. I was the price she demanded for leaving the rest of my family alone.”
Jason sighed heavily. “It might have been the right choice too. The second time my mother managed to snare Zeus’s affections, it was because she caught his aspect of Jupiter. Juno and Hera must have panicked. Two children, Greek and Roman, born into the same family. She separated me from Thalia. This is where all demigods of my kind start their journey.”
“Of your kind?” Piper asked.
“Roman Demigods are left here. We meet the she-wolf goddess, Lupa, the same immortal wolf that raised Romulus and Remus. If you are strong enough, you live.”
“But ...” Leo looked mystified. “What happened after that? I mean, you never made it to camp.”
“Not to Camp Half-Blood, no,” Jason agreed.
Piper felt as if the sky were spiraling above her, making her dizzy. “You went somewhere else. That’s where you’ve been all these years. Somewhere else for demigods—but where?”
Jason shook his head “The memories are coming back, but not the location. Those are still separated. Juno probably has them.”
“This has to do with that destiny we’re supposed to have?” Leo asked
Jason snorted unhappily
“Maybe the plan was for you to find your own way back. Maybe you are supposed to unite the two camps.” Piper offered up.
“When it was said we had to mix gods and demi-gods to beat the giants, more demi-gods the higher the chances, right?” Leo muttered.
“Makes sense to me” Jason muttered annoyed
“Giving you answers would make those answers invalid,” Piper stated all goddess like imitating Hera on purpose. “That is the way of the Fates. You must forge your own path for it to mean anything. This is only the beginning. Now you must return to Camp Half- Blood, where you will begin planning for the next phase.” They all burst into laughter. It was so close even Cerberus seemed to find it funny.
Jason sighed then “I suppose she destroyed my nice storm spirit horse too.”
That caused more laughter, more at Jason’s pout then anything else. “I think she missed that one” Leo stated grinning back at them “You’ll see him again”
They rode in quiet for a time…
“What do you think the people we’re passing think about us riding on Cerberus?” Piper asked out of curiosity
“I don’t think that’s what they see” Jason stated
“Maybe they think we’re big foot?” Leo snickered.
“I think they’re mistaking us for a semi-truck…” Piper stated looking at the people they were passing. “It’s also possible we’re being mistaken for a cloud…”
That’s when they got to an underground tunnel to vanish into a black tunnel in the road. Piper screamed and Leo gripped Jason’s arms around him. Jason recognized shadow travel and was more concerned about where they were going to land.
They landed back at Camp Half-blood beside the dining pavilion, in the middle of dinner. Sixty campers rose at once, gawking at them in astonishment. Cerberus dropped to lay in the grass allowing the three demi-gods to slide off his back, his tail wagging happily.
“Jason?” Chiron trotted forward. No doubt the old centaur had seen thousands of years’ worth of weird stuff, but even he looked totally flabbergasted.
“What—How—?”
The Aphrodite campers stared at Piper with their mouths open. Piper figured she must look awful. “Hi,” she said, as casually as she could. “We’re back.”
Jason darted between the tables to the Hades table where Nico was standing looking stunned, he hadn’t known Cerberus had gone to pick them up at Hades’ request. Jason smiled down at his much smaller boyfriend. Jason cupped Nico’s face gently and kissing him like their lives depended on it. Nico completely and utterly relaxed even in the open show of affection. They broke apart, both of them blushing and smiling. “Nico, I remember us.” He felt right, for the first time in days.
Nico’s expression turned absolutely giddy as he pulled Jason down by the collar of his shirt for a second kiss in pure relief. Hari was giggling as she moved to pet Cerberus. Leo looked nervous as Nico walked up to him and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for bringing him back. Welcome Home Leo.” Leo was blushing hard. Almost sure he was going to light himself on fire again. Piper was grinning but focused on everyone around them instead.
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After hours of Piper, Leo, and Jason answering questions and telling their story, Chiron sent them to bed. All three of their newly returned heroes crashed so hard a herd of Party ponies running through their cabins wouldn’t wake them up. Jason didn’t feel like he slept well as his memories were coming back hard in his dreams. Nico had curled up into his side sometime during the night leaving Jason a cool place to center himself in the morning. Nico knew what was going on and still wanted him… it was a very good sign.
On the way to breakfast everything seemed… normal. That was until Tina came flying out of the Aphrodite cabin to inform everyone that Piper was the new senior counselor. She even tried to whine that Piper threatened to use her to load the catapult.
“That sounds like a great idea.” Hari stated bluntly “It might make it easier to calibrate.”
There was loud snorting all around them, the Ares cabin nodding along with the idea. The Hermes cabin was howling. That followed a loud cheering as Piper came in looking right out of bed on the arms and shoulders of her half-siblings.
Breakfast was followed by a mix of morning activities. Piper was leading her new cabin while Jason spent the morning adjusting to his new reality with a happy Nico beside him. That had turned into a sparring match all too soon as Jason was using a borrowed sword from the armoury. Nico was winning too, not that Jason was allowing it, Nico was just really hard to catch.
In the afternoon Nico and Hari were off with the Hephaestus cabin finishing the last of the dragon trap clean-up. They could play capture the flag before the end of the week now. They’d been working on it to stop the camp from getting stressed out over the quest for Hera. Even making the other cabins help haul everything out of the forests to tire them out. Meanwhile Jason was playing basketball with some of the others. Piper who’d come out from her Video call with her father smiled at him. She drooled over him but didn’t say anything as they were now supposed to go meet Leo and his cabin in the woods.
Chiron walked with Piper and Jason. At the limestone cliff in the forest, they saw Hari and Nico chatting with a very nervous Leo as his cabin looked confused. That’s when the chaos started, also when Demi-god ADHD kicked right in., Leo turned to the group and smiled nervously. “Here we go.” He willed his hand to catch fire, and set it against the door.
His cabinmates gasped. “Leo!” Nyssa cried. “You’re a fire user!”
“Yeah, thanks,” he said. “I know.”
Jake Mason, who was out of his body cast but still on crutches, said, “Holy Hephaestus. That means—it’s so rare that—”
The massive stone door swung open, and everyone’s mouth dropped. Leo’s flaming hand seemed insignificant now. Even Piper and Jason looked stunned, and they’d seen a lot lately. Nico smiled having known about this. Hari whistled impressed. Chiron didn’t look surprised. The centaur knit his bushy eyebrows and stroked his beard, as if the group was about to walk through a minefield.
“Welcome to Bunker Nine,” Leo said, as confidently as he could, but nervous as all Hades. “C’mon in.”
The group was silent as they toured the facility. Everything was just as Leo had left it. The same giant machines, worktables, old maps and schematics. There was even the gummy worm bag still sitting on the work desk from three days ago. Only one thing had changed. Festus’s head was sitting on the central table, still battered and scorched from his final crash in Omaha. Leo went over to it, a bitter taste in his mouth, and stroked the dragon’s forehead. “I’m sorry, Festus. But I won’t forget you.”
Jason put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Hephaestus brought it here for you?” Leo nodded. “But you can’t repair him,” Jason guessed.
“No way,” Leo said. “But the head is going to be reused. Festus will be going with us.”
Piper came over and frowned. “What do you mean?”
Before Leo could answer, Nyssa cried out, “Guys, look at this!” She was standing at one of the worktables, flipping through a sketchbook, filled with diagrams for hundreds of different machines and weapons. “I’ve never seen anything like these,” Nyssa said. “There are more amazing ideas here than in Daedalus’s workshop. It would take a century just to prototype them all.”
“Who built this place?” Jake Mason said. “And why?”
Chiron stayed silent, but Leo focused on the wall map he’d seen during his first visit. It showed Camp Half-Blood with a line of triremes in the Sound, catapults mounted in the hills around the valley, and spots marked for traps, trenches, and ambush sites. “It’s a wartime command center,” he said. “The camp was attacked once, wasn’t it?”
“In the Titan War?” Piper asked.
Nyssa shook her head. “No. Besides, that map looks really old. The date ... does that say 1864?”
They all turned to Chiron. The centaur’s tail swished fretfully. “This camp has been attacked many times,” he admitted. “That map is from the last Civil War.” The other Hephaestus campers looked at each other and frowned in confusion. Nico and Hari looked pensive, Jason not far behind them. Piper and Leo shared a look.
“Civil War ...” Piper said. “You mean the American Civil War, like a hundred and fifty years ago?”
“Yes and no,” Chiron said. “The two conflicts—mortal and demigod—mirrored each other, as they usually do in Western history. Look at any civil war or revolution from the fall of Rome onward, and it marks a time when demigods also fought one another. But that Civil War was particularly horrible. For American mortals, it is still their bloodiest conflict of all time—worse than their casualties in the two World Wars. For demigods, it was equally devastating. Even back then, this valley was Camp Half-Blood. There was a horrible battle in these woods lasting for days, with terrible losses on both sides.”
“Both sides,” Leo said. “Then we were right. There really are two different groups of Demi-gods” Because they had to know for sure.
Chiron glanced up at the tattered bunker 9 banner, remembering the day it was raised as if to say yes. “The answer is dangerous,” he warned. “It is something I swore upon the River Styx never to speak of. After the American Civil War, the gods were so horrified by the toll it took on their children, that they swore it would never happen again. The two groups were separated. The gods bent all their wills, wove the Mist as tightly as they could, to make sure the enemies never remembered each other, never met on their quests, so that bloodshed could be avoided. This map is from the final dark days of 1864, the last time the two groups fought. We’ve had several close calls since then. The nineteen sixties were particularly dicey. But we’ve managed to avoid another civil war—at least so far. Just as Leo guessed, this bunker was a command center for the Hephaestus cabin. In the last century, it has been reopened a few times, usually as a hiding place in times of great unrest. But coming here is dangerous. It stirs old memories, awakens the old feuds. Even when the Titans threatened last year, I did not think it worth the risk to use this place.”
Suddenly Leo’s sense of triumph turned to guilt. “Hey, look, this place found me. It was meant to happen. It’s a good thing.”
“I hope you’re right,” Chiron said.
“I am!” Leo pulled the old drawing out of his pocket and spread it on the table for everyone to see. “There,” he said proudly. “Aeolus returned that to me. I drew it when I was five. That’s my destiny.”
Nyssa frowned. “Leo, it’s a crayon drawing of a boat.”
“Look.” He pointed at the largest schematic on the bulletin board. the blueprint showing a Greek trireme. Slowly, everyone realized how perfectly the two images matched perfectly, two demigods given the same vision a hundred and fifty years apart.
“That’s impossible,” Nyssa said. “That blueprint has to be a century old at least.”
“‘Prophecy—Unclear—Flight,’” Jake Mason read from the notes on the blueprint. “It’s a diagram for a flying ship. Look, that’s the landing gear. And weaponry—Holy Hephaestus: rotating ballista, mounted crossbows, Celestial bronze plating. That thing would be one spankin’ hot war machine. Was it ever made?”
“Not yet,” Leo said. “Look at the masthead.” There right for everyone to see was what could only be Festus as the masthead. “He’s meant to be our masthead,” Leo said. “Our good luck charm, our eyes at sea. I’m supposed to build this ship. I’m gonna call it the Argo II. And guys, I’ll need your help.”
“The Argo II.” Piper smiled. “After Jason’s ship.”
Jason looked a little uncomfortable, but he nodded. “Leo’s right. That ship is just what we need for our journey.”
“What journey?” Nyssa said. “You just got back!”
Piper ran her fingers over the old crayon drawing. “We’ve got to confront Porphyrion, the giant king. He said he would destroy the gods at their roots.”
“Indeed,” Chiron said. “Much of Rachel’s Great Prophecy is still a mystery to me, but one thing is clear. You three—Jason, Piper, and Leo—are among the seven demigods who must take on that quest. You must confront the giants in their homeland, where they are strongest. You must stop them before they can wake Gaea fully, before they destroy Mount Olympus.”
“Um ...” Nyssa shifted. “You don’t mean Manhattan, do you?”
“No,” Leo said. “The original Mount Olympus. We have to sail to Greece.”
It took a few minutes for that to sink it and settle. Then the other Hephaestus campers started asking questions all at once. To the point Chiron had to call order.
“Heroes!” Chiron struck his hoof on the floor. “All the details are not clear yet, but Leo is correct. He will need your help to build the Argo II. It is perhaps the greatest project Cabin Nine has even undertaken, even greater than the bronze dragon.”
“It’ll take a year at least,” Nyssa guessed. “Do we have that much time?”
“You have six months at most,” Chiron said. “You should sail by summer solstice, when the gods’ power is strongest. Besides, we evidently cannot trust the wind gods, and the summer winds are the least powerful and easiest to navigate. You dare not sail any later, or you may be too late to stop the giants. You must avoid ground travel, using only air and sea, so this vehicle is perfect. Jason being the son of the sky god ...” His voice trailed off, but Leo figured Chiron was thinking about his missing student, Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon. He would be good to have on this voyage, too. They had six months to make that happen.
Jake Mason turned to Leo. “Well, one thing’s for sure. You are now senior counselor. This is the biggest honor the cabin has ever had. Anyone object?” Nobody did. All his cabinmates smiled at him, and Leo could almost feel their cabin’s curse breaking, their sense of hopelessness melting away. “It’s official, then,” Jake said. “You’re the man.”
For once, Leo was speechless. Ever since his mom died, he’d spent his life on the run. Now he’d found a home and a family. He’d found a job to do. And as scary as it was, Leo wasn’t tempted to run, not even a little. “Well,” he said at last, “if you guys elect me leader, you must be even crazier than I am. So, let’s build a spankin’ hot war machine!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jason was at the temple of Zeus and Hera when he had a visitor. The back of his neck tingled telling him that. “Jason Grace.”
“Lord Hades” Jason greeted bowing to him in a roman salute.
Hades placed a gold flower wreath on Zeus’s altar, ignoring the real flower wreath left by Argus on Hera’s. “Are your memories coming back or are they still locked?”
“They are coming back” Jason answered.
His dreams the night before had been worse than he’d wanted to share. His memory was still foggy, but bits and pieces were coming back. The night Lupa had tested him at the Wolf House, to decide if he would be a pup or food. Then the long trip south to ... he couldn’t remember, but he had flashes of his old life. The day he’d gotten his tattoo. The day he’d been raised on a shield and proclaimed a praetor. His friends’ faces: Dakota, Gwendolyn, Hazel, Bobby, Blaise, Neville, and Reyna. Definitely there’d been a girl named Reyna. He wasn’t sure what she’d meant to him, but it hadn’t been romantic. He didn’t feel like he did with Nico, but they’d been close. They’d gone on quests together.
Jason frowned “I thought The Gods didn’t like to interact with mortals so much, and—well, you’re the king. You’re supposed to set an example.”
Hades chuckled “Zeus’s idiocy in that aspect. It was never about not liking it, but liking it too much. Mortals have a different view of the world that keeps us grounded. My brother always thought that we being gods must stand above them, even our own children should bow to us.” Hades looked at his nephew “We are as complex as Humans but still just as simple with our own idiocies, we just live longer.”
Jason gave a nervous smile “I remember some things,” he admitted. The more he talked, the less self-conscious he felt. “I remember that it’s hard being a Son of Jupiter. Everyone is always looking at me to be a leader, but I always feel alone. I guess you feel the same way up on Olympus. The other gods challenge your decisions. Sometimes you’ve got to make hard choices, and the others criticize you. And my father can’t come to my aid like other gods might. He’s got to keep me at a distance so it doesn’t look like he’s playing favorites.” Jason took a deep breath. “I understand all that. It’s okay. I’m going to try to do my best. I’ll try to make you and him proud. But I could really use some guidance. If there’s anything you can do to help me so I can help my friends. I’m afraid I’ll get them killed. I don’t know how to protect them.”
Hades put a hand on his shoulder “Talk to Aidonea, she understands that all too well. She’s probably had this conversation with you already. You just don’t remember quite yet.”
“Aidonea?” Jason was so confused
“Oh right…” Hades looked annoyed “You all call her Hari.”
Jason actually got slammed with that memory as if it has just been unlocked. Hades waited while knowing all too well someone was due any minute to pick Jason for the head counselors’ meeting.
“Let me tell you one thing if nothing else. Your friends are not your responsibility, they are there to help and guide you. To support you in times of exhaustion and push you forward in times of doubt.” Hades was shaking his head “Maybe you can help drill that one into my son’s head.” Hades then dug into his pocket flicking something to him.
Jason caught the large heavy looking coin of gold but printed with Greek lettering instead of the roman he was used too. “What is this?”
“A replacement for what you lost. Hephaestus found it while he was attempting to organize one of his store rooms. It was apparently made for a different son of Zeus, back when playing favorites was a sport to him.”
“Thank you, Lord Hades.”
Hades nodded to him “Warning to you boy. Hera is completely gone now. What little that was left of her had been destroyed, My Grandmother chose to cultivate the piece she had to something she could use instead of trying to find more before she drained it to raise Porphyrion.”
Jason understood the warning. He saluted again before Hades vanished into shadows. Jason knew something else was waiting for him as he flicked the coin and got his new spear in hand. Jason was pointing it at a woman in a black hooded robe, with a goatskin cloak over her shoulders “Juno”
She pushed back her hood. “Yes” she seemed pleased
“What do you want from me? Why did you send me to this camp?”
“I think you know,” Juno said. “An exchange of leaders was necessary. It was the only way to bridge to gap.”
“I didn’t agree to it.”
“No. But Jupiter gave your life to me, and I am helping you fulfill your destiny.”
Jason tried to control his anger. He looked down at his black camp shirt and the tattoos on his arm, and he knew these things should not go together. He had become a contradiction, a mixture as dangerous as anything Medea could cook up.
“You’re not giving me all my memories,” he said. “Even though you promised.”
“Most will return in time,” Juno said. “But you must find your own way back. You need these next months with your new friends, your new home. You’re gaining their trust. By the time you sail in your ship, you will be a leader at this camp. And you will be ready to be a peacemaker between two great powers.”
“What if you’re not telling the truth?” he asked. “What if you’re doing this to cause another civil war?”
Juno’s expression was impossible to read, amusement? Disdain? Affection? Possibly all three. As much as she appeared human, Jason knew she was not. He could still see the true form of the goddess that had seared itself into his brain. She was Juno and what had been Hera. She existed in many places at once. Her reasons for doing something were never simple, even if it was emotionally driven.
“I am the goddess of family,” she said. “My family has been divided for too long.”
“They divided us so we don’t kill each other,” Jason said. “That seems like a pretty good reason.”
“The prophecy demands that we change. The giants will rise. Each can only be killed by a god and demigod working together. Those demigods must be the seven greatest of the age. As it stands, they are divided between two places. If we remain divided, we cannot win. Gaea is counting on this. You must unite the heroes of Olympus and sail together to meet the giants on the ancient battlegrounds of Greece. Only then will the gods be convinced to join you. It will be the most dangerous quest, the most important voyage, ever attempted by the children of the gods.”
Jason looked up again at the glowering statue of his father. “It’s not fair,” Jason said. “I could ruin everything.”
“You could,” Juno agreed. “But gods need heroes. We always have.”
“Even you? I thought you hated heroes.”
The goddess gave him a dry smile. “I have that reputation. But if you want the truth, Jason, I often envy other gods their mortal children. You demigods can span both worlds. I think this helps your godly parents—even Jupiter, curse him—to understand the mortal world better than I.” Juno sighed so unhappily that despite his anger, Jason almost felt sorry for her.
“I am the goddess of marriage,” she said. “It is not in my nature to be faithless. I have only two godly children—Mars and Vulcan—both of whom are disappointments. I have no mortal heroes to do my bidding, which is why I am so often bitter toward demigods—Heracles, Aeneas, all of them. But it is also why I favored the first Jason, a pure mortal, who had no godly parent to guide him. And why I am glad Jupiter gave you to me. You will be my champion, Jason. You will be the greatest of heroes, and bring unity to the demigods, and thus to Olympus.”
Her words settled over him, as heavy as sandbags. Two days ago, he’d been terrified by the idea of leading demi-gods into a Great Prophecy, sailing off to battle the giants and save the world. He was still terrified, but something had changed. He no longer felt alone. He had friends now, and a home to fight for. He even had a patron goddess looking out for him, which had to count for something, even if she seemed a little untrustworthy. He was still better off with Hades looking out for him though.
Jason had to stand up and accept his destiny, just as he had done when he faced Porphyrion with his bare hands. Sure, it seemed impossible. He might die. But his friends were counting on him. “And if I fail?” he asked.
“Great victory requires great risk,” she admitted. “Fail, and there will be bloodshed like we have never seen. Demigods will destroy one another. The giants will overrun Olympus. Gaea will wake, and the earth will shake off everything we have built over five millennia. It will be the end of us all.”
“Great. Just great.”
“Jason, you in here?” Piper called near the entrance of the alter.
Juno pulled her hood back over her face. “We will speak again. Like it or not, Jason, I am your sponsor, and your link to Olympus. We need each other.”
The goddess vanished as the doors creaked open, and Piper walked in. “Annabeth and Rachel are here,” she said. “Chiron has summoned the council.” Jason nodded following her.
The council meeting was a shock as usual to the three newcomers. It was in the Big House rec room like always, around a Ping-Pong table. One of the satyrs was serving nachos and sodas. Hari had brought Seymour the leopard head in from the living room and hung him on the wall. Every once in a while, a counselor would toss him a Snausage.
Jason wasn’t technically a senior councillor, but they were adding him in because he was the odd one out. Piper was representing Aphrodite, and Leo was sitting there nervous as Hephaestus’s leader. Clarisse, leader of the Ares cabin, had her boots on the table, and nobody cared. Hestia’s Representative was Anne and currently knotting something colourful off her toe. Clovis from Hypnos cabin was snoring in the corner while Butch from Iris cabin was seeing how many pencils, he could fit in Clovis’s nostrils. Travis Stoll from Hermes was holding a lighter under a Ping-Pong ball to see if it would burn, and Will Solace from Apollo was absently wrapping and unwrapping an Ace bandage around his wrist. The counselor from Hecate cabin, Lou Ellen was playing ‘got-your-nose’ with Miranda Gardiner from Demeter, except that Lou Ellen really had magically disconnected Miranda’s nose, and Miranda was trying to get it back. Hari was sitting on the table sipping her soda poking at Annabeth who had come out of the field so she was still in her armour and armed. Annabeth fixed Jason with an expectant look, as if she were trying to extract information out of him by sheer willpower. Rachel Dare, the oracle, sat next to Chiron at the head of the table. She was wearing her Clarion Academy school uniform dress, which seemed a bit odd, but she smiled at Jason.
Jason had hoped Thalia would show. Not that his hopes would work, the timing just didn’t work out. Chiron had told him not to worry about it. Thalia often got sidetracked fighting monsters or running quests for Artemis, and she would probably arrive soon. But still, Jason worried.
“Let’s come to order,” Chiron said. “Lou Ellen, please give Miranda her nose back. Travis, if you’d kindly extinguish the flaming Ping-Pong ball, and Butch, I think twenty pencils is really too many for any human nostril. Thank you. Now, as you can see, Jason, Piper, and Leo have returned successfully... more or less. Some of you have heard parts of their story, but I will let them fill you in.”
Everyone looked at Jason. He cleared his throat and began the story. Piper and Leo chimed in from time to time, filling in the details he forgot. It only took a few minutes, but it seemed like longer with everyone watching him. The silence was heavy, and for so many ADHD demigods to sit still listening for that long, Jason knew the story must have sounded pretty wild. He ended with Juno’s visit right before the meeting. Mostly confirming that there was another group of demi-gods, and that truly was where he’d come from.
“Romans.” Clarisse tossed Seymour a Snausage. “You expect us to believe there’s another camp with demigods, but they follow the Roman forms of the gods. And we’ve never even heard of them.”
Piper sat forward. “The gods have kept the two groups apart, because every time they see each other, they try to kill each other.”
“I can respect that,” Clarisse said. “Still, why haven’t we ever run across each other on quests?”
“Oh, yes,” Chiron said sadly. “You have, many times. It’s always a tragedy, and always the gods do their best to wipe clean the memories of those involved. The rivalry goes all the way back to the Trojan War, Clarisse. The Greeks invaded Troy and burned it to the ground. The Trojan hero Aeneas escaped, and eventually made his way to Italy, where he founded the race that would someday become Rome. The Romans grew more and more powerful, worshipping the same gods but under different names, and with slightly different personalities.”
“More warlike,” Jason said. “More united. More about expansion, conquest, and discipline.”
“Yuck,” Travis put in. Several of the others looked equally uncomfortable, though Clarisse shrugged like it sounded okay to her.
Annabeth twirled her knife on the table. “And the Romans hated the Greeks. They took revenge when they conquered the Greek isles, and made them part of the Roman Empire.”
“Not exactly hated them,” Jason said. “The Romans admired Greek culture, and were a little jealous. In return, the Greeks thought the Romans were barbarians, but they respected their military power. So, during Roman times, demigods started to divide—either Greek or Roman.”
“And it’s been that way ever since,” Annabeth guessed. “But this is crazy. Chiron, where were the Romans during the Titan War? Didn’t they want to help?”
Chiron tugged at his beard. “They did help, Annabeth. While Hari and Percy were leading the battle to save Manhattan, who do think conquered Mount Othrys, the Titans’ base in California?”
“Hold on,” Travis said. “You said Mount Othrys just crumbled when we beat Kronos.”
“No,” Jason said. He remembered flashes of the battle, the giant in starry armor and a helm mounted with ram’s horns. He remembered his army of demigods scaling Mount Tam, fighting through hordes of snake monsters. “It didn’t just fall. We destroyed their palace. I defeated the Titan Krios myself.”
Annabeth’s eyes were as stormy as a ventus. Jason could almost see her thoughts moving, putting the pieces together just like Leo, Piper and him had. “The Bay Area. We demigods were always told to stay away from it because Mount Othrys was there. But that wasn’t the only reason, was it? The Roman camp—it’s got to be somewhere near San Francisco. I bet it was put there to keep watch on the Titans’ territory. Where is it?”
Chiron shifted in his wheelchair. “I cannot say. Honestly, even I have never been trusted with that information. My counterpart, Lupa, is not exactly the sharing type. Jason’s memory, too, has been burned away.”
“The camp’s heavily veiled with magic,” Jason said. “And heavily guarded. We could search for years and never find it.”
Rachel Dare laced her fingers. Of all the people in the room, only she didn’t seem nervous about the conversation. “But you’ll try, won’t you? You’ll build Leo’s boat, the Argo II. And before you make for Greece, you’ll sail for the Roman camp. You’ll need their help to confront the giants.”
“Bad plan,” Clarisse warned. “If those Romans see a warship coming, they’ll assume we’re attacking.”
“You’re probably right,” Jason agreed. “But we have to try. I was sent here to learn about Camp Half-Blood, to try to convince you the two camps don’t have to be enemies. A peace offering.”
“Hmm,” Rachel said. “Because Hera is convinced, we need both camps to win the war with the giants. Seven heroes of Olympus—some Greek, some Roman.”
Annabeth nodded. “Your Great Prophecy—what’s the last line?”
“And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.”
“Gaea has opened the Doors of Death,” Annabeth said. “She’s letting out the worst villains of the Underworld to fight us. Medea, Midas—there’ll be more, I’m sure. Maybe the line means that the Roman and Greek demigods will unite, and find the doors, and close them.”
“Or it could mean they fight each other at the doors of death,” Clarisse pointed out. “It doesn’t say we’ll cooperate.” There was silence as the campers let that happy thought sink in.
“I’m going,” Annabeth said. “Jason, when you get this ship built, let me go with you.”
Hari sighed “You know you aren’t staying on the mission, right?”
“Wait? What?” Leo frowned. “I mean that’s cool with me and all. But why?”
Annabeth and Jason studied one another, and Jason knew she had put it together. She saw the dangerous truth. “Hera said my coming here was an exchange of leaders,” Jason said. “A way for the two camps to learn of each other’s existence.”
“Yeah?” Leo said. “So?”
“An exchange goes two ways,” Hari stated bluntly.
“When I got here, my memory was wiped. I didn’t know who I was or where I belonged. Fortunately, you guys took me in and I found a new home. I know you’re not my enemy. The Roman camp—they’re not so friendly. You prove your worth quickly, or you don’t survive. They may not be so nice to him, and if they learn where he comes from, he’s going to be in serious trouble.”
“Percy can manage it, I’m more worried about the romans…” Hari muttered “They won’t know what to do with that ball of hyper chaos.”
Annabeth for all her grim frowning couldn’t help but smile and giggle. “My boyfriend disappeared around the same time Jason appeared. If Jason came to Camp Half-Blood …”
“Then Percy Jackson is at the other camp, and he probably doesn’t even remember who he is.” Jason explained to the others
Hari looked at all of them looking at her. “Don’t look at me. I can’t tell you where it is either.” She admitted “I’ve never been.”
“But Nico has.”
“Nico is currently in the Underworld.” Hari stated “Him and Dad are arguing again.”
That sounded about right. They left the conversation to hang. They needed to get to work, now. They had a prophecy to fulfill.