A/N: For the longest time I wasn't really sure how to go about writing this new daemonverse series of mine, but I was pushed in the right direction by Mouse-size-Dragon's fic, 'Iron Man Alone' (which is obviously an Avengers/Iron Man fic but is actually really good and tackles the daemon element amazingly). So if the writing's a little weird, and the tense or the tone seems to slip, then it's because this is a new style for me and I'm trying to get the hang of it. Each chapter will include parts from the actual books, but hopefully a bit of my own work too. Because what's the point in writing a fic if it's canon? So here, please enjoy my take on things. I'm actually looking forwards to delving deeper into the human-daemon relationships, and I've found already that Mukki is amazing fun to write. And sorry for the long author's note :p

Disclaimer: PJO/HoO belongs to Rick Riordan. HDM belongs to Philip Pullman. I own neither.

I

When Jason woke up, she wasn't there. At the museum, she wasn't there. On the skywalk, she wasn't there. When they were attacked by venti, she wasn't there. When he rescued Piper, he wasn't there. And when Annabeth yelled at the sky, she wasn't there.

It made some sort of twisted sense that she wouldn't be there during the chariot ride, either. And after a long and bizarre morning, someone finally noticed.

"Annabeth," said the possum-like creature. "Annabeth!"

"Areti? What is it?" Annabeth asked. Jason was taken aback. This creature wasn't an animal but rather a daemon, and it wasn't Annabeth's daemon; he was a formidable-looking wolf that had not yet left her side. Butch's daemon was with him too, a short bulldog that sat next to his ankle and panted dopily. That meant that this daemon belonged to someone who wasn't with them. The thought of it made Jason feel ill.

"He has no daemon," Areti said, a whine in the back of her throat. Annabeth stiffened, staring at Jason with her calculating grey eyes.

"What?" she asked.

"His daemon isn't here," Areti said, running back and forth across the edge of the chariot. "He's all alone, Annabeth. Something's really wrong here. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit."

"Where is she?" Annabeth demanded of him. "Where's your daemon?"

"I- I don't- I don't know. I woke up and she was gone. Like my memories. Have you seen her?" Annabeth shook her head, seeming almost speechless.

"N-No," she said, quickly covering up her stammer with a determined and solid presence. "I haven't seen her." Jason nodded wordlessly, and didn't cry, like he so wanted to.

When they crash-landed, Jason found himself feeling on edge, like he didn't really belong at this camp. The eyes, not necessarily hostile, felt as if they were threatening him. He felt uncomfortable out in the open, and they were all staring, looking for his daemon, looking uncomfortable when they couldn't find her. Then Annabeth had pointed out the marks on his arm and instructed a girl to whisk him away, and he knew without question that he didn't belong here.

Mukki was perched on Piper's shoulder, leaning into her neck. He was never normally so close to her, but Jason's lack of a daemon had unnerved them. Annabeth soon pointed out the faults in her memories, and Piper realised that she'd never seen Jason's daemon; never even knew her name.

Now she crouched in the weapons shed, holding the dagger, katropis, in her hands, looking at the reflection of her own face. Then the reflection shimmered and was replaced with a wall of flames, and she saw her dad in chains. The laughter from her dream echoed in her ears. Her grip loosened, and the dagger dropped to the ground.

She heard Annabeth shouting for a medic, and managed to choke out, "No, it's- it's okay."

After talking Annabeth into letting her use her phone, she dialled her dad's number. When he didn't answer, she grudgingly tried the other one. Jane was no help, and she hung up with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She'd been trying for three days, and she'd had no answer.

Something was very, very wrong.

It was starting, just like the dream said.

Annabeth showed her around the cabins. Hera's cabin made her uneasy, but when she spotted the footprints, she pushed open the door and walked in anyway, brushing aside Annabeth's concerns. The inside was cold and the statue of Hera was distracting. It reminded Piper of a tomb, and it sent shivers of foreboding up Piper's spine. The whole thing filled her with dread.

"Careful," Mukki whispered in her ear, "Careful. Over there. Look."

She looked, and there she saw a figure covered in a black shawl. She pointed the figure out to Annabeth wordlessly, and Annabeth gasped.

"Rachel!" she called.

Rachel turned to show her freckled face and red hair. Her daemon rushed forwards to sniff Annabeth's daemon; he took the form of a lynx. They spoke for a while about Annabeth's boyfriend, and Piper shifted uncomfortably.

Finally Annabeth introduced them, and Piper found herself quite liking the girl. As Annabeth explained about Olympus being closed, Mukki fluttered down from her shoulder to perch on the lynx's head and chirp quietly in his ear. Rachel's daemon replied with a soft growl. From Annabeth's side the wolf called something across to them, but their humans were far too distracted to notice this exchange.

"Something bad is happening," Rachel said. As Piper prepared to tell them about her dream, Rachel stiffened and her eyes began to glow. A green light seemed to radiate from her entire body. Mukki chirped as the lynx-daemon began to glow at the edges and returned to perch on Piper's head as Rachel grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Free me. Free me, Piper McLean, or the earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice."

The room was spinning. Annabeth tried her hardest to pull the two apart, but it didn't work, and soon green smoke had enveloped her. It was so unreal that Piper was unsure as to whether she was awake or dreaming. The statue seemed to loom over her.

"Our enemies stir. The fiery one is only the first. Bow to his will, and their king shall rise, dooming us all. FREE ME!"

Piper's world went black, Mukki silenced mid-cry.

Leo wasn't a vulcan, but from the way people looked at him, he may as well have been. He was used to it, of course, and even though Will tried not to act surprised, Leo could see through it in a second. The moment he'd introduced his daemon to the archer dude he'd seen him trying to form the question in a polite way, but of course, there was no polite way to ask.

The tour, however, was strangely enjoyable. The activities at camp were so amazing, and probably illegal too- real Greek warships, woods filled with dangerous monsters and arts and crafts sessions that required chainsaws and blowtorches… Not to mention the girls. Leo sorely hoped he wasn't related to them.

"Leo!" Ales snapped in his ear. "Stop chasing the girls and focus!"

"You're no fun," Leo muttered back, proceeding to ignore his daemon.

When Will had explained about his dad being Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and fire, Leo thought it must be some great twist of irony. After all, considering what happened to his mom… But he tried not to think about that much nowadays.

Then he saw Tia Callida across the green. It had been Ales who had spotted her first, and Ales who saw her vanish when he pointed her out to Will. He had no idea why Tia Callida would be in a place like this, especially considering he hadn't seen her since he was five, but he knew it wasn't good. She'd tried to kill him, after all.

He brushed it off to the son of Apollo. No need for them to think he was crazy.

Speaking of crazy, cabin nine had some sort of crazy steampunk theme going on, and Leo found he liked it- loved it, even.

Jake Mason seemed nice enough, even if he was a little, uh, beaten up. He gave Leo the best bed in the cabin- bunk 1A, the supposedly haunted bed that had formerly belonged to Charles Beckendorf- and left him with the ominous words of, "It used to be nice."

The forges, too, were cool, and his new family were overwhelming. So many names and faces to remember, and Leo knew he'd never manage it. They were all so different and unique, with nothing to mark them out as siblings, except for powerful hands. The only problem was that they seemed to have no sense of humour. Like, at all.

"Hold up. You guys lost a dragon?" Nyssa explained all about the runaway dragon, and how they were planning to kill it. Then came the worst part, about the demigod children of Hephaestus with fire powers.

"When a child of Hephaestus like that appears, it usually means something catastrophic is about to happen. And we don't need any more catastrophes." Leo struggled to keep his face clear of emotions. It hadn't always been his strong suit, and Ales was worse at it than he was.

"Ales," he muttered under his breath to the twitching squirrel. His daemon stilled for a moment, but at the same time, Leo's fingers began to drum on his knee.

And of course, when the others left for dinner and he was alone, the idea was there. He wasn't going to get rid of it. In fact, it was all but written in stone by the time he set his hand aflame.

Drew was getting on Jason's nerves and making him uncomfortable. She didn't seemed fazed by his lack of a daemon, and her own daemon, a mink, seemed in an awful hurry to get close to him- not touching-close, but close nonetheless. He felt almost smothered by her. It was a relief when he met Chiron, despite the centaur's welcoming statement of,

"You should be dead."

The leopard on the wall snarled and the room's decor was supervised by a god. Jason had seen weirder things (things that he didn't remember, but this he knew). He told Chiron the story of this morning, the only morning he could remember out of fifteen years' worth of them. At Jason's only question- "What did you mean when you said I should be dead?"- his reply was as vague as the original statement.

"My boy, do you know what those marks on your arm mean? The colour of your shirt? Do you remember anything?" After a brief exchange that somehow shifted into latin, Jason found himself feeling more out of place than ever.

"The last chapter approaches, just as it did before. The worst is yet to come."

Mist erupted from Seymour's mouth, calling his name. Jason grabbed his sword, and the mist took the form of a woman in black robes and a goatskin cloak.

"Would you attack your patron? Lower your sword. Our time is limited, Jason. My prison grows stronger by the hour. It took me a full month to gather enough energy to work even the smallest magic through its bonds. I've managed to bring you here, but now I have little time left, and even less power. This may be the last time I can speak to you."

"You're in prison?" Jason asked, before shaking himself and saying the thing that really mattered here. "Look, I don't know you, and you're not my patron."

"You know me. I have known you since your birth."

"I don't remember. I don't remember anything."

"No, you don't. That was also necessary. Long ago, your father gave me your life as a gift to placate my anger. He named you Jason, after my favourite mortal. You belong to me."

"Whoa, I don't belong to anyone."

"Now is the time to play your debt. Find my prison. Free me, or their king will rise from the earth, and I will be destroyed. You will never retrieve your memories, or find your precious soul."

"Is that a threat?" Jason demanded of the smoke-woman in anger and confusion. "You took my memories? You took my- her- my daemon?"

"You have until sunset on the solstice, Jason. Four short days. Do not fail me."

And then the world restarted, Jason could breathe again and time continued on its natural course. He explained what had happened to Chiron, and the moment he finished, Annabeth and Rachel burst in, dragging Piper between them. Annabeth's wolf-daemon held Piper's jay gently in his teeth.

They exchanged stories, and his confusion had spread to the entire room, which made him feel slightly more at home (but he decided not to focus on how weird that was). Chiron couldn't help them, and Jason felt as if he'd messed something up by just existing.

The funny thing was that when she spoke to him, Annabeth didn't seem phased by his lack of a daemon. Then again, Areti, Percy Jackson's daemon (who'd been left behind), had been following her and watching every exchange with unease. Jason knew how she felt.

Hypnos's cabin left him feeling sleepy, and enlightened, though he was just as- if not more so- confused than before. It seemed that confusion was going to be his ghost, at least until he got his memories back.

And Annabeth was right, as usual. He was definitely in some serious trouble.

When Piper woke from her dream- dreams- dream and had a discussion with Rachel. Annabeth had gone, taking Jason and the mysterious lone-daemon Areti with her. Rachel told her that she was going to be claimed at the campfire, and she had no doubt that the oracle was telling the truth. Like an alethiometer of old, the spirit of Delphi seemed to never be wrong.

Though she'd at first been nervous about the campfire, fearing its resemblance to where her dad was being held captive, instead she found something much more nerve-wracking: a singalong. Half a dozen campers with lyres stood around the campfire, leading the song, and the kids- fifty or sixty of them, all clustered together on the amphitheatre steps- were singing along cheerfully. Some of their daemons were singing along, filling the air with the chatter of birds and the howling of canine and feline harmony.

It was perhaps the weirdest thing she'd ever seen.

When the song came to an end Chiron stood up with the announcements- something about capture-the-flag being cancelled until some sort of dragon was dealt with, and how Percy had not yet been found. The mood flames in the centre were extremely low by the time Annabeth mentioned a quest that Piper was surprised they hadn't gone out.

"It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?" Drew called out, standing up under the Aphrodite banner. After some bickering, all eyes turned to Rachel.

"Yes," she said, "The Great Prophecy has begun." After a minute or so of chaotic panic, Rachel managed to calm the crowd down enough to recite the prophecy, sounding as if she knew the words off by heart (which she probably did, Piper figured).

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call

To storm or fire the world must fall-"

She was interrupted by Jason, who shot to his feet, eyes wild.

"Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum dejuremus

Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem."

Uneasy silence followed. Jason blinked, looking as if he were unsure as to why he'd just done that.

"You just finished the prophecy," Rachel stammered in confusion. "-An oath to keep with a final breath

And foes bear arms to the doors of death."

"I know those lines. I don't know how, but I know that prophecy." He was holding his head, as if he had a headache.

In the next two minutes Piper cemented her disdain for the Aphrodite kids and listened to Rachel finish up her speech, as well as wish she could have been in Annabeth's place to comfort him. Then a quest was issued, and Jason was the son of Zeus, and she forgot all about the sparkly kids from Cabin Ten.

Rachel issued Jason a prophecy for his quiz, and seeing it happen was definetely strange. The words were even stranger.

"Child of lightning, beware of the earth,

The giants' revenge the seven shall birth,

The dove and the forge shall break the cage,

And death unleash through Hera's rage."

After Piper's untimely question and the scathing reply from Drew (gods, Piper hated her already)- who was then shot down by Annabeth who voiced her concerns about the quest- and a quick exchange between the daughter of Athena and the centaur- Annabeth turned to address the crowd.

"It's Jason's quest," she said with a deep breath, "So it's Jason's choice. Obviously, he's the child of lightning. According to tradition, he may choose any two companions."

"Well you, obviously, Annabeth. You've got the most experience," yelled a voice belonging to someone lost in the crowd and the darkness.

"No, Travis," Annabeth replied. "First off, I'm not helping Hera… Secondly, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy."

Piper blurted out, "It's connected. You know that's true, don't you? This whole business, your boyfriend's disappearance- it's all connected."

"How? If you're so smart, how?" Piper really wished that she could reach out and slap Drew. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible at the moment.

"You may be right, Piper. If this is connected, I'll find out from the other end- by searching for Percy… But there's another reason I can't go. The prophecy says otherwise."

"It says who I pick," Jason agreed. "The forge and the dove shall break the cage. The forge is the symbol of Vul- Hephaestus." At once, Nyssa from Hephaestus sighed and began to list all the problems with air travel. She didn't seem to be a very optimistic person.

"It's me," Leo said, standing up. He'd been so quiet, she'd forgotten he was there.

"Now that's unlike Leo," Mukki chirped in her ear, and she agreed wholeheartedly.

"No, it's me. I know it is. I've got an idea for the transportation problem. Let me try. I can fix this!"

Jason studied him, and for a long moment, the whole amphitheatre held its breath.

"He's not going to agree," Mukki chirped in Piper's ear. "Oh, dear…"

To both their surprise, Jason did agree. "You find us a ride, you're in." Leo pumped his fist with a hiss of glee.

Next Drew stood up and offered to go on the quest. Piper saw the way she was looking at Jason, and her whole body tensed up. Jason may not have really been her boyfriend, but she wasn't about to let him date another girl after all her hard work. She took a step forward.

"No."

"Oh, please, Dumpster Girl. Back off." Drew rolled her eyes.

"I had the vision of Hera; not you. I have to do this."

"You flay her," Mukki muttered. Piper often found that her daemon was rather violent for a simple songbird.

"Anyone can have a vision," Drew said offhandedly. "You were just in the right place at the right time." Now she was addressing Jason: "Look, fighting is all fine, I suppose. And people who build things… Well, I suppose someone has to get their hands dirty. But you need charm on your side. I can be very persuasive. I could help a lot."

"We can be charming, right, Piper?" Mukki snapped into her ear. "And what's with this right place at the right time business? The goddess said your name! Show her, Piper, show her!"

"Mukki!" Piper whispered. "Shh!"

"Well," Annabeth said, "Given the wording of the prophecy-"

"No!" Piper interrupted, and there was that thing with her voice again, "I'm supposed to go." And at once everyone began to agree with her.

Well that was new.

"Get over it! What can Piper do?" Drew asked snappily, and Piper began to wonder what she could do. Not a lot.

"We can do everything," Mukki chirped determinedly. "Just let her watch, we can do anything!"

"Well, I guess that settles it," said Drew smugly. Then the collective glow and Piper's sudden makeover left her speechless. "What?"

"Hail, Piper McLean," Chiron was saying, "Daughter of Aphrodite, lady of the doves, goddess of love."

Piper bit back a groan. It seemed that she wouldn't be forgetting the sparkly kids from Cabin Ten anytime soon.

A/N: So what'd you think? Like I said, I enjoyed writing Mukki, a lot. Mukki is going to show a lot of Piper's more violent side, where as Ales acts as Leo's voice of reason. If you want to know why I chose those daemons for certain character's, then just PM me. You can also check out 'Settling Down', which is a series of one-shots about the characters' daemons settling. Beware of spoilers though (I'd recommend not reading Hazel's or Frank's chapters yet.) And I guess that's all from me.

-Acae