sixty-seven: congrats! we're all fucking depressed!

ARUNA

~•♡•~

aruna felt like she was being consumed from the inside out. the world was a blur around her as nico- poor, starved, weak nico- hauled her further away from the pit. aruna's body was numb. the sun blinded her as her limbs went slack and her head rolled to the side, mindlessly gazing at the floor littered with cobwebs. she couldn't hear anything. smells were evaporating before her nose. her tongue was foaming with the taste of her own blood. her vision was concentrated on only the cobwebs on ancient floorboards.

she'd failed.

she'd had one job; save percy and annabeth. she had enough strength to do it, she was sure of it. she'd been able to move fast enough to catch them before they fell, but why couldn't she pull them up? the chasm was speaking to her, imploring her to follow them in. it spoke of people and things she'd not heard from in years; her father, her grandfather, old friends. it spoke of the evil of her life, urging her to just give up.

she was weak. she couldn't even summon two seconds of power to pull percy and annabeth up.

hot tears ran down her cheek. blood tainted her lips. her entire body radiated with pain. she'd been dehumanized by a robot, but this was the pain of loss.

it felt like she'd lost her dad again. it was the same feeling; the feeling of being a failure, of knowing she was unable to save them. it started in her heart, a stabbing feeling, like a vampire with a wooden stake. then, it spread all over her body. waves of loss rolled over her, over and over again, like the unforgiving sea to a mere fisherman's boat. it rolled over her own boat, sinking her, drowning her, and laughing about it.

she felt both nothing and everything at the same time. piper had force fed her ambrosia, but she tasted none of it. hazel had dribbled nectar all over her wounds, but it only reminded her of how thick her own blood was, how thick the blood on annabeth's leg was, and she cried more. leo had approached her, trying to reach out, but he stopped when aruna didn't even blink. frank had tried to bring her a change of clothes, but aruna felt like she needed to sit in her failures for longer. jason had tried to bring her a simple plate of enchiladas, but aruna looked away from it. nico had handed her a water bottle as she had done to him maybe two hours before then, but she could only stare at it until he went away.

she'd failed.

~•♡•~

if aruna looked as terrible as she felt, she thought leo would just break up with her entirely.

it had been a few days since they'd lost percy and annabeth to tartarus. two or three, if aruna was counting correctly, but everything just seemed like a complete blur to her. in the time since percy and annabeth fell through the chasm, through aruna's own hands, aruna had not a single wink of sleep. she kept blinking, almost squinting too harshly to re-wet her consistently dry eyes. her skeleton felt like it was trying to climb out of her skin. the world would randomly spin, lights would make her brain tickle, phantom smells passed her nose every few seconds. through her eyes, colors would consistently change. sometimes, everything was pink. others, it was covered in hues of orange, red, and yellow.

in a sense, she couldn't sleep. every few hours, some new roman monster loved to attack the ship. aruna was participating in every single fight, with various different demigods (if everyone hadn't been awake). all around the air, an ominous, depressive aura hung. it was suffocating. it felt like trying to breathe methane gas. her chest would throb whenever she tried to join group discussions with everyone; which is exactly the problem.

not everyone was there.

she'd stopped eating. she'd barely had ambrosia and nectar since the day they recovered the parthenos. she only ate enough to heal her swollen eye, broken cheekbone, broken ribs, the liver that nearly went out, and bruised hip. otherwise, she was still wounded. her cheek and lip were bruised messes, with cuts all over. cuts covered her arms, partially healed but barely.

and ambrosia could do nothing for the pain she felt inside.

now, yet another monster attack was happening.

"hard to port!" nico yelled from the foremast of the flying ship.

back at the helm, leo yanked the wheel. the argo II veered left, its aerial oars slashing through the clouds like rows of knives. aruna kept her balance, running towards leo, her feet slapping heavily on the ground.

"what the fuck is it?" she grunted as she peered over his shoulder, still trying not to invade his space.

"rock dudes." leo hissed as he literally punched a button. "stupid motherfuckers! i slaved away for six months building my damn ship!" he hollered into the clouds. hazel yelped as a rock shot forward, hitting the mast.

it collapsed. aruna jumped to nico as he, the sail, and spars all fell to the deck. she yelped as she caught him, but it mostly just protected him. aruna and nico both fell, with heavy folds of canvas folding over them.

"nico!" hazel scrambled over to him as leo brought the ship level.

"i'm fine." nico muttered as aruna let him go. together, they started kicking canvas folds aside.

"i'm fine, too. thanks for asking." aruna muttered.

hazel helped nico up, and the three demigods stumbled to the bow. the clouds parted just barely, only enough to see the top of the mountain below them. standing at the summit was a mountain god- one of the numina montanum, jason had called them. to aruna, they were the greek ourae. either name, they were disgusting creatures.

like the others they had faced, this one wore a simple white tunic over skin as rough and dark as basalt. he was about twenty feet tall and extremely muscular, with a flowing white beard, scraggly hair, and a wild look in his eyes that reminded aruna of crackheads she used to have dance battles with outside 7/11. he bellowed something aruna didn't understand, but it warded her off nonetheless. with his bare hands, he pried another chunk of rock from his mountain and began shaping it into a ball.

the scene disappeared in a fog, but when the mountain god bellowed again, other ourae answered in the distance, their voices echoing through the valleys.

"stupid rock gods!" leo screamed from the helm, his voice practically enraged. "that's the third time i've had to replace the fucking mast! you think they grow on trees?!"

aruna and nico froze. aruna deadpanned and nico frozed as his eyes zeroed in on leo.

"masts are from trees." he said.

"that's not the point!" leo snatched up one of his controls, rigged from a nintendo Wii stick, and spun it in a circle. a few feet away, a trapdoor opened in the deck. a celestial bronze cannon rose. aruna felt a wave of exhaustion roll over her, and her fuzzied mind forgot to cover her eyes. the canon shot into the sky, sraying a dozen metal spheres that trailed green fire. the spheres grew spikes in midair, like helicopter blades, and hurtled away into the fog.

aruna ears rung loudly, her head spinning, but she felt a faint rumbling followed by the vibration of loud booming.

her ears cleared slightly and she shook her head as her eyes focused.

"HA!" leo screeched as he jumped up.

aruna head spun as she wobbled to the starboard side where, unfortunately, a giant rock was flying to her.

"get us out of here!" nico screamed.

"fucking shit! i'll fucking murder those stupid sons of bitches!" leo screamed as he turned the wheel. the engines hummed. magical rigging lashed itself tight, and she ship tacked to port. the argo II picked up speed, retreating northwest, as they'd been doing for the past two days.

aruna didn't join leo until they were out of the mountains. the fog cleared. below them, morning sunlight illuminated the italian countryside- rolling purple hills and indigo fields. as aruna squinted and reopened her eyes, she realized the hills were green, and the fields were golden.

her throat felt dry as she dragged herself to the helm.

hazel stood on the quarterdeck, her face contorted in thought. aruna felt a radiating sadness from her, and nico was mostly annoyed as he picked splinters out of his arms. aruna walked to the helm and leo looked at her sadly. she slumped against the railing and crossed her arms over her chest.

she waved leo off, and he bit his lip as he turned away.

"well, that was sucktastic." he complained. "should i wake the others?"

"no." aruna shook her head, her voice deeper and huskier.

"they need rest." hazel said. "we'll have to figure out another way on our own."

"huh." leo scowled at his monitor, his worried emotions suddenly shifting to anger once more. physically, in his tattered work shirt and grease-splattered jeans, aruna thought he looked good.

but leo had been angry lately. ever since percy and annabeth fell to tartarus, leo had been working almost nonstop. he constantly carried this guilty air with him, this drive to do everything and anything all the time. it worried aruna massively.

she didn't like leo like this. she liked him when he was joking around, cracking a smile all the time. like this, he seemed almost scary. like he would lash out if aruna looked at him the wrong way. it made aruna feel like she was closing up inside, like she needed to stay away. at all times, she was tense around him now, and it reminded her dangerously of the two people she hated most.

"another way..." leo muttered. "do you see one?"

on his monitor glowed a map of italy. the apennine mountains ran down the middle of the boot-shaped country. a green dot for the ship blinked on the western side of the range, a few hundred miles north of rome. their path should have been simple, in theory. they needed to get to a place called epirus in greece, and find an old temple called the house of hades (or pluto, as the romans called him).

but, that was in theory. in action, it was a different story. instead of go straight east- over the apennines and across the adriatic sea- they were constantly being stopped by the mountain gods.

for the past two days they'd skirted north, hoping to find a safe pass, with no luck. the ourae were sons of gaea, one of the many goddesses aruna wanted to punch in the face (she was top of the list, followed by jura, as aruna had taken to calling her). that made the ourae some very determined enemies. the argo II couldn't fly high enough to avoid their attacks, and even with all its defenses, the ship couldn't make it across the range without being smashed to pieces.

"it's our fault." hazel suddenly said. "nico and mine. the numina can sense us."

she glanced at her half-brother, and aruna followed. since nico had been rescued, he'd started to regain his strength, but he was still painfully thin. his black shirt and jeans hung off his skeletal frame. long dark hair framed his sunken eyes, giving him the appearance of an actual skeleton. his olive complexion had turned a sickly greenish white, like the color of tree sap.

in human years, he was barely fourteen- younger than aruna by about two years. but the son of hades didn't seem to express that age. something about him carried an older, melancholic air. the air of a boy who endured mussolini, the first world war, who saw pearl harbor. he was more mature, more hardened and saddened.

aruna barely knew him, and even though she knew it wasn't his fault, it was difficult to be around him. nico radiated more pain, death, and suffering than any demigod she'd ever known- any human she'd ever known. she knew the boy had suffered unspeakable horrors in his time in tartarus, and that he would never be a simple fourteen year old boy.

nico gripped the hilt of his stygian iron sword. "earth spirits don't like children of the underworld. that's true. we get under their skin- literally. but i think the numina could sense this ship anyway. we're carrying the athena parthenos. that thing is like a magical beacon."

aruna turned her head away at the thought of the massive statue taking up most of the space in the lower deck. they'd sacrificed so much saving it from arachne's abode- specifically percy and annabeth- but they had no idea what to do with it. so far, the damned thing only seemed to be good for alerting more monsters to their presence.

leo traced his finger down the map of italy. aruna noticed his nails looked shorter, jagged, and inflamed, like he'd been chewing at them. "so crossing the mountains is out. thing is, they go a long way in either direction."

"we could go by sea." hazel suggested. "sail around the southern tip of italy."

"that's a long way." nico remarked. "plus, we don't have..." his voice cracked and he licked his lips as he steadied himself. "our sea expert... percy."

the name hung in the air like one of jason's lightning storms.

percy jackson, son of poseidon... aruna admired him a lot. even though she'd only known him for a short time, he radiated a sort of calm energy, like he knew things would be fine (even though aruna knew that just about everyone on the ship had a feeling things would blow up in the end). his confidence was entirely otherworldly, his loyalty present even in the darkest of times. and aruna knew that percy truly loved every single thing about annabeth. she had no doubt he'd catch a grenade for her.

annabeth... annabeth was the demigod aruna looked up to the most. annabeth had more brains than anyone she'd ever met- including her brothers and sisters in the athena cabin. annabeth had a way to scheme out of just about every situation. every time a threat was posed, annabeth had an idea to get out of it.

and annabeth wasn't just smart. she was strong, too. it was a hard thing for someone to use a knife- it breaks easily, it's small, it can get lost, and you have to be extremely close range. and yet, annabeth had entirely mastered the art. she had the agility of a leopard, the strength of an ox, the slyness of a snake. annabeth was everything, everywhere, everyone all at once. she was kind, too. she'd taught annabeth more about greek mythology and being a demigod than just about anyone else. she was always present when aruna was training, giving her tips on how to succeed in battle. annabeth was willing to share food, and gossip, and walk on the beach with aruna.

aruna missed her and percy dearly.

"what about continuing north?" hazel asked. "there has to be a break in the mountains, or something."

leo fiddled with the bronze archimedes sphere he'd installed on the console- his newest and most dangerous toy. everytime aruna looked at it, she felt several things. a rush of fear, because she wondered if it'd torch the whole ship. a tickle of excitement, because it really could do amazing things.

and a surge of pain as she remembered lena.

this time, aruna was excited more than anything. she walked closer to leo as the sphere grew a camera lens and projected a 3-D image of the apennine mountains above the console.

"i dunno." leo commented as aruna put her chin on his shoulder, her cheek close to his. leo didn't even blink, but hazel and nico looked a little surprised. "i don't see any good passes to the north. but i like that idea better than backtracking south. i'm done with rome."

nobody argued with him. rome had not been a very good experience.

"whatever we do," nico said. "we have to hurry. every day that percy and annabeth are in tartarus..."

he didn't need to hurry. aruna maintained a neutral face, and casually draped her arm over leo's other shoulder, almost like she was trying to hold him, ensure he wasn't going to leave her, too. leo's breathing was calm, his body unnaturally warm as it always was.

aruna hated thinking about the doors of death. to her, it was really a secondary part to the quest. she knew it was the only way to save percy and annabeth, but frankly, if percy and annabeth weren't there, she didn't know how much effort she'd be putting into that.

nico scowled at the italian countryside below them. "maybe we should wake the others. this affects us all."

"no." hazel and aruna said.

"we can find a solution." hazel added.

aruna not only felt like the four above deck could do it, but she didn't really want to see anybody else. tensions had been higher than ever now that percy- the backbone, the confidence-inducer- and annabeth- the brains and actual leader of the quest- were gone. nobody could really get along. aruna felt spikes of anxiety every time more than three other people were present, just as it had been before the quest started.

"we need some creative thinking." she said. "another way to cross those mountains, or a way to hide ourselves from the numina."

nico sighed. "if i was on my own, i could shadow travel. but that won't work for an entire ship. and honestly, i'm not even sure i have the strength to even transport myself anymore."

"i could maybe rig some sort of camouflage." leo offered. "like... like a smoke screen to hide us in the clouds..." he sounded and felt extremely unconfident in that.

aruna chewed her lip. she didn't see many options left. she didn't want to offer her moon travel. that was extremely fickle. she could do it to herself pretty easily, but she often ended up somewhere she didn't want to be (like the back of shrimpzilla). and the one time she'd taken someone else with her- leo, on their first quest- it completely backfired.

at the edge of the horizon, a flicker of movement caught her eye- something small and beige racing across the field at incredible speed, leaving a vapor trail like a plane's.

hazel's golden eyes lit up. "arion."

"what?" nico squinted.

leo let out a happy whoop and aruna pumped her fist up as the dust cloud got closer.

"it's her horse, man!" leo grinned. "you missed that whole part. we haven't seen him since kansas!"

hazel laughed. aruna knew it'd been her first laugh in days.

about a mile to the north, the small beige dot circled a hill and stopped at the summit. he really was magnificent. aruna could see him rear up and whinny loudly, the soun carrying across the plains, and onto the ship.

"we have to meet him." hazel said. "he's here to help."

"yeah, okay." leo scratched his head. "but, uh, we talked about not landing the ship on the ground anymore, remember? you know, with gaea wanting to destroy us and all."

"just get her close." aruna said. "she can use the rope ladder."

"arion wants to tell me something." hazel nodded.

leo nodded and aruna pulled away from him as she moved to the edge of the ship. slowly, they got closer and closer to arion, and nico found himself staring. leo parked the ship in the air, and aruna lowered the rope ladder for hazel. as she peered over the edge, nausea coursed through her, and she had to step away as she gagged.

"afraid of heights?" nico questioned as hazel made it to the ground.

"no." aruna swallowed thickly. "not usually." she added, remembered when they had been on the way to aeolus's palace, following the icy trail.

"then... congrats, you're glowing?"

leo broke into a cough and aruna snorted.

"estoy un virgen." aruna said with a sarcastic smile.

"oh."

nico looked away and aruna frowned. "wait, why does that surprise you?"

"well, like." nico shrugged as he watched his sister below. "i thought you and leo have been dating for like, half a year?"

"nah." aruna shook her head. "i'm way out of his league."

"i heard that!"

"i didn't whisper!" aruna called back. she looked back out into the world. a mile away, on the crest of the next hill, a storm had gathered over some old stone ruins- maybe the remains or a roman temple or fortress. a funnel cloud snakes its way toward the hill like an inky black finger.

"hazel!" nico called down. "what's going on?"

"it's fine!" hazel called back. aruna saw her summon a golden nugget from the earth and feed it to arion. "arion wants to take me somewhere!"

"uh..." aruna and nico exchanged nervous looks as leo ran up to them

he pointed towards the storm. "please tell me he's not taking you into that?"

hazel looked to the storm, the color draining from her face, she turned to arion and murmured something to him, which resulted in a whinny.

hazel tightened the straps of her imperial gold cavalry sword and climbed onto arion's back.

"i'll be okay!" she called up. "stay put and wait for me."

"how long?" aruna called, worried. she had begun to see hazel as a little sister, so the thought of the daughter of pluto running off so soon worried her.

she couldn't lose her, too.

"what if you don't come back?" nico asked, panic laced in his tone.

"i will." hazel promised.

she spurred arion, and they shot across the countryside, heading straight for the growing tornado.

~•♡•~

"what happened?" leo asked as hazel climbed aboard the ship. aruna and nico looked up from where they had started playing cards, and aruna was glad for the distraction. nico was setting up for poker, and aruna was fairly certain they were playing bridge.

however, she let that feeling go when she saw how bad hazel was shaking. she and nico ran forward as hazel looked over the ship at the faint trail arion had left behind. the spot where the tornado had once been was no empty, the fields shimmering in the morning sun aruna hated so much.

"hazel?" nico asked.

hazel's knees buckled. aruna and nico grabbed her arms, helping her to the steps of the foredeck. she felt embarrassed, but with aruna's hand on her shoulders, she gently curbed the younger girl's emotions to feel less on the spot.

"i met hecate."

the air stilled at those words. aruna felt her chest lock up as hazel described what had happened, her words short and to the point. she spoke of meeting hecate at a crossroads, how she was told about a secret pass through the northern mountains, and the detour hecate had described to take them to epirus.

when she was done, nico took her hand. aruna breathed out and ruffled her shirt a little.

"hazel," aruna shook her head. "you met hecate at a crossroads. that's... that's something many demigods don't survive, and the ones who do survive are never the same."

nico frowned at hazel. "are you sure you-"

"i'm fine." hazel insisted.

aruna knew she wasn't.

"what if hecate is tricking us?" leo said. "this route could be a trap."

hazel shook her head. "if it was a trap, i think hecate would've made the northern route sound tempting. believe me, she didn't."

leo pulled a calculator out of his toobelt and punched in some numbers. as aruna tried to focus in on them, her brain felt fuzzied. she couldn't do math normally. now, she was hopped up on twelve hour old caffeine and a serious lack of sleep. she numbers literally floated off the screen and started doing an irish jig before her eyes.

aruna squinted, shook her head, and looked away.

"that's..." leo huffed. "that's something like three hundred miles out our way to get to venice. then we'd have to backtrack down the adriatic. and you said something about baloney dwarfs?"

"dwarfs in bologna." hazel correced. "i guess bologna is a city. but we have to find dwarfs there... i have no idea. some sort of treasure to help us with the quest."

"huh." leo said. "i mean, i'm all about treasure, but-"

"it's our best option." nico helped hazel to her feet. "We have to make up for lost time, travel as fast as we can. percy's and annabeth's lives might depend on it."

"fast?" leo grinned. "i can do fast."

he hurried to the console and started flipping switches.

nico pulled hazel out of earshot and started murmuring to her. aruna went to the edge of the ship again and closed her eyes, trying to steady herself.

instead, she threw up.

hazel ran to her side and nico just went, "ewwwwwww." as leo called to make sure she was okay. aruna coughed slightly and stood upright again, wiping her mouth with the back of her arm.

"oh my gods, are you okay?" hazel said quickly.

"you want a girl or a boy?" nico called.

"i want a noose."

~•♡•~

not gonna be able to publish tomorrow (possibly it rly depends) so here ya go WELCOME TO HOH SHIT IS GETTING REAL AND RN IM WRITING BOO AND ITS ONLY GETTING REALER WOOOHOOOOOOOO im also editing this while watching superbad so we love that for me

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