HAZEL

~•♡•~

Hazel threw her sword at the Doors of Death, exhaustion on the brink of overcoming her. The chains on the right side shattered as Hazel collapsed in agony, her side burning as the doors shuddered and disappeared in a flash of purple light.

Clytius roared so loudly that a half-dozen stelae fell from the ceiling and shattered.

"That was for my brother, Nico," Hazel gasped. "And for destroying my father's altar."

You have forfeited your right to a quick death, the giant snarled, his voice like an empty echo. Hecate cannot help you. NO ONE can help you!

 The goddess, Hecate, raised her torches. Something about her was ghastly, melancholy, but powerful and supreme at the same time. "I would not be so certain, Clytius. Hazel's friends simply needed a little time to reach her, time to defeat Lamia- time you have given them with your boasting and bragging."

What friends? These weaklings? They are no challenge!

In front of hazel, the air rippled. The Mist thickened, creating a doorway, and five people stepped through.

Hazel wept with relief. Frank's arm was bandaged and bleeding, but he was alive. Next to him stood Nico, Piper, and Jason- all with their swords drawn.

Aruna stepped into the room. Hazel gasped as Aruna limped slightly, her lips busted. She held out her hand, with a long rope tied around it.

No, not rope. Hazel nearly choked in horror.

Aruna was holding up the severed head of Lamia, her eyes removed and sockets wide open. Her mouth was agape, with a long, warty tongue hanging out the side, away from her razor-sharp shark-like teeth. Her skin was a disgustingly sick color, her hair like greasy noodles had been sewn into her scalp. Aruna's breathing was heavy as she held up the head, and Hazel heard a faint shudder echo throughout the room, but it wasn't hers.

"You stupid cunts," Aruna snickered.

Hazel didn't know whether to be horrified or absolutely delighted. Next to Aruna, Nico stepped forward, his Stygian iron blade pulled close to his chest in a defensive maneuver.

"She won't be coming back," he sneered.

Jason stepped forward, a simple smile on his face. "Sorry we're late. Had some problems. Is this the guy who needs killing?"

Hazel almost felt sorry for Clytius. Not only did everyone attack him from all sides, but the first move made was Aruna throwing the severed head of Lamia at him. He shrieked in horror as the demon's head disappeared into the smoky darkness he was made of.

Leo began shooting fire at his legs, setting the giant ablaze. Jason was flying into the air and kicking him in the face. Frank and Piper kept jabbing at his chest with their swords, which impressed Hazel- Piper had gotten very good sword skills in a relatively short manner of time. Aruna was slashing at the giants with her own blades, clearly exhausted because she was laughing like a maniac- or maybe she was just psychotic. Hazel had a feeling it was a mix.

Every time the giant's smoky veil started creeping around one of them, Nico was there, slashing through it, drinking in the darkness with his Stygian iron blade. To Hazel's surprise, he and Aruna were shouting commands at each other, working in sync like they'd been doing this for years.

Percy and Annabeth were on their feet, looking weak and dazed, but their swords were drawn. When did Annabeth get a sword? And what was it made of- ivory? They looked like they wanted to help, but there was no need. The giant was surrounded.

Clytius snarled, turning back and forth as if he couldn't decide which of them to kill first. Wait! Hold still! No! Ouch!

The darkness around him dispelled completely, leaving nothing to protect him except his battered armor. Ichor oozed from a dozen wounds. The damage healed almost as fast as it was inflicted, but Hazel could tell the giant was tiring.

One last time, Jason flew at him, kicking him in the chest, and the giant's breastplate shattered. Clytius staggered backward. His sword dropped to the floor, and Aruna kicked it away like it might explode. He fell to his knees and the demigods encircled him.

Only then did Hecate step forward, her torches raised. Mist curled around the giant, hissing and bubbling as it touched his skin.

"And so it ends," she murmured.

It does not end. Clytius's voice echoed from somewhere above, muffled and slurred. My brethren have risen. Gaea waits only for the blood of Olympus. It took all of you together to defeat me. What will you do when the earth mother opens her eyes?

Hecate turned her torches upside down. She thrust them like daggers at Clytius's hair. The giant's hair went up faster than dry tinder, spreading down his head and across his body until the heat of the bonfire made Hazel wince. Clytius fell without a sound, face-first into the pile of rubble of Hades's altar. His body crumbled to ashes.

For a minute, nobody spoke. Hazel heard a ragged, painful noise and realized it was her own breathing. Her side felt like it had been kicked in with a battering ram.

"My head!" Aruna cried. "No!"

Jason frowned. "That's your concern?"

"I was gonna mount it in the Big House!"

Hecate turned to face Hazel. "You should go now, Hazel Levesque. Lead your friends out of this place."

Hazel gritted her teeth, trying to hold in her anger. "That's it? No 'thank you'? No 'good work'? Just like that?"

"Can you give me back my head?!" Aruna demanded. Hazel tried to ignore the legitimate tears in her friend's eyes.

The goddess tilted her head as if studying Hazel. Gale the weasel chittered- maybe a goodbye, maybe a warning- and disappeared into the mistress's skirts.

"You look in the wrong place for gratitude," Hecate said. "As for 'good work', that remains to be seen. Speed your way to Athens. Clytius was not wrong. The giants have risen- all of them, stronger than ever. Gaea is on the very edge of waking. The Feast of Hope will be poorly named unless you arrive to stop her."

The chamber rumbled. Another stela crashed to the floor and shattered.

"The House of Hades is unstable," Hecate said. "Leave now. We shall meet again."

"Will you meet with my head?!"

The goddess dissolved. The Mist evaporated.

"She's friendly," Percy grumbled.

The others turned towards him and Annabeth, as if just realized they were there.

Aruna was the first to move. Hazel watched as thick, rapid tears fell from her eyes as she tackled Annabeth into a hug, and pulled Percy in to join. Hazel watched Annabeth's eyes go wide with shock, and she sent a look to Percy, who only had the same shocked look.

Aruna pulled away and wiped her tears, her hands on either of their shoulders. Annabeth smiled at her as Jason surged forward, pulling Percy into a bear hug.

"Dude."

"Back from Tartarus!" Leo cried. "Let's go, bitches!"

Piper threw her arms around Annabeth and cried, pulling Aruna in as well. Hazel watched all three girls cry, and touch each other's faces, like they couldn't believe they were real.

Frank ran to Hazel. He gently folded his arms around her. "You're hurt," he said.

"Ribs probably broken," she admitted as Leo and Aruna hugged each other, pulling the other into a tight embrace. "But Frank- what happened to your arm?"

He managed a smile. "Long story. We're alive. That's what matters."

She was so giddy with relief, she hadn't even noticed Nico, standing by himself, his expression full of pain and conflict.

"Hey," she called to him, beckoning with her good arm.

He hesitated, but came over and kissed her forehead. "I'm glad you're okay," he said. "The ghosts were right. Only one of us made it to the Doors of Death. You... you would have made dad proud."

She smiled, cupping her hand gently on his face. Nico was only slightly taller than her, and only slightly older, but still, Nico seemed so young in that moment. Nico was her older brother, someone she looked up to for support, but the pain in his eyes made hazel feel like she had to protect him. "We couldn't have defeated Clytius without you."

She ran a thumb under Nico's eye and wondered if he had been crying. She wanted so badly to understand what was going on with him- what had happened to him over the last few weeks. After all they'd just been through, Hazel was more grateful than ever to have a brother.

"Where were you?" Hazel asked him, pointing to the scrapes on his arms. He smelled like smoke and Nico sighed.

"Fighting Lamia with Ru."

Hazel paused. Ru? Since when was Nico using a nickname? Since when was Nico not saying a single rude thing about Aruna?

"I- How did it go?" Hazel remembered how Aruna had held up the severed head of the monster and she almost gagged.

"Fine, I would say." Nico nodded. "I broke my spine-"

"WHAT?!"

"-but then that was healed, so I'd say it went pretty good," Nico continued. Aruna stared at him, confused at how he was able to simply breeze by what had happened. Nico looked down at Hazel, then cast his gaze to Aruna, who was hugging Percy Jackson.

"And I think I made a new friend."

~•♡•~

Shadow travelling? Hazel had never done it before.

So, naturally, she tried it in a life-or-death situation.

They shadow traveled out of the House of Hades, onto the hillside overlooking the river Acheron. The sun was rising, making water glitter and the clouds glow orange. The cool morning air smelled of honeysuckle.

Hazel was holding hands with Frank on her left, Nico on her right. They were all alive and mostly whole. The sunlight in the trees was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She wanted to live in that moment- free of monsters and gods and evil spirits.

Then her friends began to stir.

Nico realized that he was holding Percy's hand and quickly let go.

Leo staggered backward, letting go of Aruna as he fell on his bottom. "You know... I think I'll sit down."

Aruna was not so lucky. She staggered a full five feet away before projectile vomiting a solid stream of puke about three feet in front of her. Several people groaned loudly and collapsed, both exhausted from the temple- and Tartarus- and disgusted by Aruna, who was holding her knees and bending over while still vomiting.

"You okay?" Annabeth called over. Aruna hurled again, and Annabeth got the message.

"It's no different than moon traveling, right?" Jason questioned.

"It is different if you've just killed Lamia," Nico pointed out.

Aruna called, "And I had a heart attack!"

"And she had a heart-" Nico froze. "You what?"

aruna hurled again.

"Why is it always her?" Piper demanded. "When has there ever been a moment when Runa did not puke?"

"It wouldn't be an important moment if Aru didn't puke," said Leo.

Once she was done, Aruna stood upright, and wiped her mouth. Her breathing was heavy as she overlooked the countryside, her hands on her hips. The Argo II still floated over the river a few hundred yards away. Hazel knew that they should signal Coach Hedge and tell him they were alive. Had they been in the temple all night? Or several nights? But at the moment, the group was too tired to do anything except sit and relax and marvel at the fact that they were okay.

They began to exchange stories.

Frank explained what had happened with the ghostly legion and the army of monsters- how Nico had used the scepter of Diocletian, how bravely Piper and Jason fought, and how Nico dropped the scepter and bolted mid-fight.

"Frank is being modest," Jason said. "He controlled the entire legion. You should've seen him. Oh, by the way..." Jason glanced at Percy. "I resigned my office, and gave Frank a field promotion to praetor. Unless you want to contest that ruling."

Percy grinned. "No argument here."

"Praetor?" Hazel stared at Frank.

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Well... yeah, I know it seems weird."

She tried to throw her arms around him, but then remembered her broken ribs, so she settled for kissing him. "It seems perfect."

Leo clapped Frank on the shoulder, one arm around Aruna. "Way to go, Zhang. Now you can order Octavian to fall on his sword!"

"Tempting," Frank admitted. He looked to Aruna and nodded at her. "What about you and Nico? we found you at the end, but... but what about when you ran away?"

Aruna looked out to the countryside. Hazel saw her silvery eyes pooling with pain, like something bad had happened that she couldn't talk about.

"I encountered Lamia again," Aruna relayed. "And ran through the temple. Blind. Praying that I'd make it. And I did."

She looked back at the countryside.

Hazel could tell there was something more hidden there, but Aruna wasn't talking about it. Everyone had heard Aruna's screams, how she'd been running around. They'd heard the shrieks of Lamia, they'd felt them through the walls. Hazel stared at the dried blood from Aruna's ears, her busted lip, her limp. She knew something more had happened in that temple.

"Peaches here saved me."

Nico groaned and everyone stared at him. "Don't call me that."

"Peaches?" Percy asked.

"Yep." Aruna nodded. "'Cause he's just a peachy dude."

"Stop." Nico grumbled. Aruna winked at him and turned to her friends, taking a deep breath. Hazel noticed Leo squeeze her hand in some sort of rhythm, and a blush appear on Aruna's cheeks.

"What about the heart attack thing?" Jason asked.

"Apparently my grandmother died. So that's fun."

Leo gaped. "How do you-" It clicked and he looked away, the gears in his head turning. Hazel saw a single tear slip from Aruna's eye as she turned to Percy and Annabeth.

"And you guys?" she prodded. "Tartarus? Yay or nay?"

Percy laced his fingers with Annabeth's.

Hazel happened to glance at Nico and saw pain in his eyes. She wasn't sure, but maybe he was thinking of how lucky Percy and Annabeth were to have each other. Nico had gone through Tartarus alone.

Hazel looked at Aruna. Her eyes were trained on Nico's, softer than usual. She looked away as he flickered his glance to hers and his eyebrows hardened.

"We'll tell you the story," Percy promised. "But not yet, okay? I'm not ready to remember that place."

"No," Annabeth agreed. "Right now..." She gazed toward the river and faltered. "Uh, I think our ride is coming."

Hazel turned. The Argo II veered to port, its aerial oars in motion, its sails catching the wind. Festus's head glinted in the sunlight. Even from a distance, Hazel could hear him creaking and clanking in jubilation.

Leo and Aruna shot up, jumping up and down in a fit of cheers. Hazel's eyes widened as they waved to the ship, all their energy back, like they hadn't just been through the House of Hades.

"That's my boy!" Leo screamed. Aruna said something in Spanish that made Leo scream even louder.

As the ship got closer, Hazel saw Coach Hedge standing at the prow.

"About time!" the coach yelled down. He was doing his best to scowl, but his eyes gleamed as if maybe, just maybe, he was happy to see them. "What took you so long, cupcakes? You kept your visitor waiting!"

"Visitor?" Hazel murmured.

At the rail next to Coach Hedge, a dark-haired girl appeared wearing a purple cloak, her face so covered with soot and bloody scratched that Hazel almost didn't recognize her. But she could spot that hard, obsidian gleam from a mile away.

Reyna had arrived.

~•♡•~

someone in my comments referred to aruna as "ru" one time so it gave me inspo!