JASON

~•♡•~

jason was above deck, nervously scanning every inch of the harbor at malta. he could hear piper's shaky breathing next to him, like she was terrified for what lay ahead.

jason grinned. a hundred yards out, tied to the longest dock, was a white sailboat with a broken electric blue sail. in the back, a junky, makeshift motor was smoking and crackling, and the boat was covered in soot and scrapes. even from this distance, jason could see the glint of celestial bronze. only one demigod could make something like that, and only he and his girlfriend could screw it up so bad. and only they would park it as far out in the harbor as possible so that it was impossible to miss.

"get the others." he smiled at piper. "they're here."

~•♡•~

they found leo and aruna at the top of the city fortifications. they were at an open-air cafe, overlooking the seam and drinking a cup of coffee (since when did leo like coffee?), and aruna had a large plate of pancakes in front of her. her hair looked clean, as did leo's, and they were dressed in... wow. time warp. their outfits were identical to what they wore when they first arrived at camp half-blood- leo wore jeans, a white shirt, and an old army jacket. except that jacket had burned up months ago. aruna was wearing a black jacket, black jeans, a black shirt (wow, she loves black) and clunky nike shoes, except jason specifically remembered her losing those shoes when she fell down the grand canyon.

piper nearly knocked leo and aruna out of their chairs with a hug. "leo! runa! gods, where have you been?!" she gave them both a sisterly peck on the cheek, which made aruna smile a bit.

"valdez! rodrigo!" hedge grinned. then, he seemed to remember he had a reputation to protect and he forced a scowl. "you disappear like that again, you little punks, i'll knock ya into next month!"

frank patted leo on the back so hard, it made him wince. nico shook aruna's hand, muttering something to her. it must not have been super rude, because aruna smiled and nodded.

hazel kissed aruna on the cheek, which was a bit of a shock to the older girl. "we thought you were dead!"

aruna snorted as hazel stood upright. "i don't die, except when i do, i don't."

leo was bouncing his knee nervously. "come on, guys! order some food!" he pulled a massive wad of cash from his coat pocket. "selene hooked us up!"

everyone took seats around the table, with jason next to leo. as he sat down, he finally seemed to notice several bandages all over aruna's body, and faint bruises littering her skin.

jason squeezed leo's shoulder as piper gave aruna another hug. "bro, what happened?"

leo's smile faded and he looked to aruna. aruna sighed and looked at the group.

"we had to fight lamia."

the greeks- and jason- went still, but the romans looked at each other, rather confused. jason saw nico scoot forward, genuinely shocked.

"wait- wait, the lamia?" he breathed out.

"who is lamia?" hazel asked.

aruna sighed. "originally, she was the queen of libya. she had an affair with zeus, and had a few kids with him. hera got really mad, and killed lamia's children. in return, lamia started killing and devouring any children she could get her hands on, which turned her into a monster. part of it was a curse- she could never close her eyes, so she would always obsess over her dead children. zeus, however, as a means of 'fixing' that, made it so that lamia could sort of shapeshift, and gave her the ability to remove her eyes from her skull. she never sleeps, and she hunts children."

frank looked like he was about to throw up. "so... so what happened to her?"

"aruna killed her," leo said.

jason stared at aruna. "wait, seriously? you killed lamia? no hero ever has!"

aruna snorted. "well, it was not easy." she gestured to the bandages on her arms. "but, she's dead now. what about you guys? what happened with khione?"

coach snorted. "what happened? piper happened! i'm telling you, this girl has got skills!"

"coach..." piper protested.

coach went into the story of piper's charmspeaking, and how she managed to reactivate festus. however, in his version, there were a lot more boreads, and piper was a kung fu assassin.

as the coach talked, jason studied leo and aruna. something about aruna seemed more... breathable. more content, like a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders. leo was laughing happily at hedge's story while aruna was teasing piper.

jason was a little surprised they hadn't come down to the harbor when they saw the ship come in. the ship was the most important thing in leo's life. when he saw it coming in, he should've run down to the docks, whooping at the top of his lungs.

jason eyed aruna. leo's gaze was on her, his eyes crinkled happily. jason realized that the ship wasn't the most important thing to leo. aruna was. he smiled softly as he watched aruna and leo laughing together.

coach was just describing how piper had defeated khione with a roundhouse kick when piper interrupted.

"coach!" she said. "it didn't happen like that at all."

"aw, but this version is fun!" aruna complained.

piper rolled her eyes. "i couldn't have done anything without festus."

leo raised his eyebrows. "but festus was deactivated."

"um, about that." piper said. "i sort of woke him up."

piper explained her version of events- how she woke festus up with charmspeak. aruna shot up, slapping her hand on the table.

leo stared at her. "don't say something stupid-"

"does this mean you can turn a vibrator on with your voice?"

frank burst into a coughing fit while piper laughed loudly. leo shook his head with a smile, though nico shook his with a frown.

"what the fuck? why the fuck would you say that?" nico groaned.

"this is a genuine question that can very easily be tested via the scientific method." aruna commented. "all we need is an adult store, three brands of toys, and piper's voice."

"no!" hazel shrieked.

"yes!" leo gleamed.

"no." jason sighed. leo looked disappointed, but then he looked alive again.

"okay, so you powered festus back up?" he scoffed. "shouldn't be possible. unless the upgrades let him respond to voice commands." he shook his head like he was brushing it off and he looked at piper. "anyway, what happened after the wind bomb went off?"

hazel took up the story. a waitress came over and offered them menus, and in no time, they were munching on sandwiches and sipping sodas, enjoying the sunny day, like they were almost a group of regular teenagers.

frank grabbed a tourist brochure stuck under the napkin dispenser, and he began to read it. piper kept poking at aruna, almost playfully, but she was clearly trying to figure out if aruna was really there or not. nico stood at the edge of the group, eyeing the passing pedestrians as if they might be enemies. coach hedge munched on the salt and pepper shakers.

"so, then, jason harnessed the venti," hazel finished. "and here we are."

leo whistled as aruna managed to fit an entire pancake in her mouth. frank was watching her with wide eyes, and jason couldn't tell if he was trying to figure out how to do it himself, or if he was just terrified.

"hot-air horses?" leo asked as aruna's cheeks puffed out while she munched, syrup dribbling down her chin. "damn, jason. so basically, you held a bunch of gas together all the way to malta, and then you let it loose."

jason frowned. "you know, it doesn't sound so heroic when you put it that way."

leo shrugged as he wiped the syrup off aruna's chin, then sucked it off his finger. "yeah, well. i'm an expert on hot air. i'm still wondering, why malta? selene had to blast us here because the wind god told y'all to come here. was it a random thing? or-"

"wait, selene?" nico asked. "selene was there?"

"rhodes is her home," aruna explained, "and it's where i was born. after i killed lamia, she gave us some nectar and ambrosia to heal, then blasted us over here four fucking days later."

"says here malta was where calypso lived." frank shrugged.

"calypso?" leo wrinkled his nose. "who?"

"i vaguely remember her," aruna said. "she detained odysseus on her island for a couple years. she's a sorceress, i think."

frank shrugged. "according to this, her original home was an island called gozo just north of here."

"she's a daughter of atlas, if i remember correctly," aruna said. "i don't know much about her. just that she was cursed to live on some island or whatever. we don't learn much about her, since she's not a monster or goddess, and nobody ever meets her."

"but, that still doesn't explain why the south wind told us to come here," hazel said.

"maybe he thought aruna and leo ran into calypso," jason shrugged. "i don't know. wind gods are weird."

leo snorted. "i would have much preferred if we ran into a sorceress girl rather than a child-eating maniac that looks like a coked-out lion."

"yeah, but calypso detained odysseus for years," aruna pointed out. "at least lamia was a one-and-done thing."

"meh. i guess you have a point." leo shrugged. "so, we should get going!"

"no, fuck that," aruna said as she chugged her coffee. "i haven't eaten since that shitty ham sandwich yesterday afternoon. you are not taking this from me."

leo glared at her. "aru, we have magical food on board."

"shut fuck up." aruna pushed his face away with her palm, but leo licked it. she groaned loudly and used her foot to push his chest away.

"glad to see you guys are normal," nico grumbled. aruna continued to push leo until he almost fell out of his chair.

"oi! cut it out!"

"no."

jason smiled and leo and aruna started arguing, with aruna eating her pancakes in between. he turned to piper, who was also smiling, breathing heavily like she was relieved. frank continued reading his brochure, with an arm around hazel.

"well, once aruna's done eating and yelling at leo," jason said, "we should probably get going."

suddenly, hazel gasped. "guys..."

she pointed to the northeast horizon. leo had his shoe parked on aruna's shoulder, pinning her back, but he froze mid-action to look where hazel was pointing. at first, jason saw nothing but the sea. then a streak of pure darkness shot through the air like black lightning- as if pure night had torn through the daytime.

"i don't see anything." hedge grumbled.

"me neither." piper said.

jason scanned his friends' faces. aruna seemed to see the lightning, too, her face trained on it closely. the only other one who seemed to notice something was off was nico.

"that can't be..." nico muttered. "greece is still hundreds of miles away."

the darkness flashed again, momentarily leaching the color from the horizon.

"you think it's epirus?" jason's whole skeleton tingled, the way he felt when he got hit by a thousand volts. he didn't know why he and aruna could see the dark flashes. they weren't children of the underworld. but it gave him a bad feeling.

nico nodded. "the house of hades is open for business."

a few seconds later, the rumbling sound washed over them like distant artillery.

"it's begun," aruna muttered.

"what has?" leo asked.

when the next flash happened, hazel's gold eyes darkened like oil in fire. "gaea's final push. the doors of death are working overtime. her forces are entering the mortal world en masse."

"we'll never make it," nico said. "by the time we arrive, there'll be too many monsters to fight."

jason set his jaw. "we'll defeat them. and we'll make it there fast. we've got leo back. he'll give us the speed we need."

he turned to his friend. "or is that just hot air?"

aruna scooted forward. "oi, cockface! aruna's back, too!"

jason smiled at her. "and now your sunny personality will lighten the load."

"damn straight."

leo grinned. he cracked his knuckles and stood up, a bright smile on his face. "time to fly, boys and girls. uncle leo's still got a few tricks up his sleeves!"

~•♡•~

the first thing leo did when he was on board was kiss festus.

"oh, i'm so proud of you buddy!"

festus creaked and whirred. everyone gave leo a weird look as he went on petting the bronze dragon, chattering with him excitedly. aruna rolled her eyes and took off her jacket.

"pipes, i need some help," aruna said. "mind checking out one of my wounds for me?"

"sure." piper followed her downstairs. hazel lingered above, vacantly gazing out at the horizon.

piper turned around and hissed, "hazel!"

hazel flinched. piper waved her own, and she trotted to join the girls.

frank snorted. "i guess they'll just be gossiping some more." he turned to leo, who was now talking to festus in a baby voice. "leo, don't you need to work on repairs?"

leo turned. "let me talk to my buddy for a minute!"

leo went back to babying the robot.

jason scoffed and rolled his eyes. nico marched to the edge of the ship, staring out at the black lightning. from below, jason heard loud laughter, and then a shriek.

"geez, i didn't know that gossip could get so intense," frank admired.

"OW, PIPER! DON'T STICK YOUR FINGER IN THERE!"

every single boy froze, and slowly looked down at the paneling. even leo had stopped babying his metal dragon as another shriek was heard.

"LEONIDAS, WHY IS THERE A HOLE IN HER STOMACH?!" piper screeched.

leo screamed and stomped on the floor angrily, making him look kinda like a crazy goblin. "DON'T CALL ME LEONIDAS!"

"I'LL STOP CALLING YOU LEONIDAS WHEN YOU EXPLAIN WHY THERE'S A HOLE IN HER STOMACH!"

leo screamed again and started jumping up and down on the wood. "SHE GOT STABBED, YOU STUPID CUNT!"

"PUNCH YOURSELF!"

he did.

then, he whined loudly, "PIPERRRRRR!"

~•♡•~

currently fighting demons (the demons are stopping me from writing any new chapters on this book)

istg go read my other books bc im actually like UPDATING those ones

i feel so bad like im leaving yall hanging plz forgive me