Jason and Piper were hopelessly lost.
"Oh, shit", Jason muttered. "I knew it was a bad idea."
Piper sat down on a rock and drank from her bottle.
"We should've asked that man where the exit was", she said.
Jason snorted. "That guy? Nah, he wouldn't have helped."
She frowned at him. "He would have. He wanted us to leave."
"Yes and he would have done everything to keep us away from the river!"
Piper sighed and put the bottle back into her bag. "Are you still mad?"
"At what?"
"Come on, Jason… don't be like that…"
"Why? It works for you!" he snapped.
She crossed her arm and stood up. "What?" She didn't wait for him to explain himself. "Listen to me, young man! I know I'm not perfect but if you had to put up with so much shit as I have in my life you would -"
But Jason wasn't listening. His girlfriend continued to speak, while he studied their environment.
He was sure they had found the location of Rachel's dream. While they didn't find the gate from her prophetic dream yet, they had walked past many buildings that had an astonishing resemblance to the ones in Rachel's drawings. Now they only had to find the people living in this place and they could return to camp Half-Blood. The problem was: the place was abandoned! No one had set a foot on this place for many, many years. There was even no sign of that strange man! How was that possible?
Unless the man had come from another direction, which would explain why there was no trace of him.
Jason cleared his throat and turned to his girlfriend. He opened his mouth to suggest going back, when he heard voices. The two froze.
Jason reached for his sword.
"Let's go back!", he whispered. "There's a good place to hide and keep watch!"
Piper nodded, her hand grabbed her dagger tightly.
Carefully, quickly, they walked back and hid behind a wall.
"That's good", he said breathlessly. "Now we wait."
"Did you hear if they were monsters?"
He shook his head. "No. They wouldn't have been so..."
"Careful?"
He nodded. Piper motioned with her head towards the direction the voices had come from.
"They are silent now..."
The two demigods waited for an eternity it seemed. Their hearts beat rapidly, their breathing was ragged and the sun shone heavily on their heads. Jason wished he had taken a hat with him.
His heart skipped a few beats when he heard the shuffling of footsteps approaching their location. The couple exchanged a look. Their eyes shared the same worry. But whoever - whatever waited for them on the other side of the wall, they would defeat it together.
Jason gave a short nod, a gesture Piper understood from past experience. She licked her lips.
"One..."
"...Two..."
He took a deep breath.
"Three!"
The two jumped from their cover and charged, shouting at the top of their lungs. The three strangers, who had appeared, shouted something and drew their weapons. But Jason and Piper were faster and more desperate. Piper's dagger clashed against a woman's, unarming her with one strike. Jason disarmed the other two before they had time to react and pushed them to the ground with one hard shove.
"Stay-"
The man tackled Jason. He landed hard on his back, but he still had his sword in his hand and slashed. The man rolled off of him and Jason jumped to his feet again.
"Who-"
There was a loud sound, similar to the sound of a horn. The three strangers looked at each other and ran away. Piper and Jason stormed after them when suddenly the ground began to shake. They gasped in shock and stumbled back as the earth rose into a wall.
"Shit! Shit! Go back!", he yelled. "Go back!"
Piper and Jason ran around a corner, not caring where they were headed, when the earth formed a wall again. A look to every direction showed them that they were surrounded. Large walls, at least seven meters tall, gloomed over them.
Jason put an arm around Piper's hips, pulling her tightly against him as he commanded the winds to carry them over the walls.
They were halfway up, when a woman appeared on the wall behind them. She moved her arms and hands in a short and harsh manner and two metallic sheets shot forward. Jason cried out as something heavy clasped around his feet and started to drag them down.
He urged the winds to become stronger. They were rising again! But suddenly, he felt something hard crash against him. This cold thing tightened around his body like a snake and pulled him down and down, until Jason's strength faded and they fell.
Jason couldn't move. Piper groaned and sat up. Her head was buzzing. The ground trembled as the walls declined in height.
"Sorry for the hard landing." Someone chuckled. "But we couldn't let you leave."
Piper forced herself to look up. She tasted blood, but all pain and anger disappeared when she saw the source of the voice.
They were surrounded by twelve people, but Piper and Jason were only interested in one. She stood tall despite her small stature. Her dark, curly hair was tied up. Her skin glistened with sweat.
"Oh, shit.", Jason muttered. "Hazel?"
Piper's jaw fell open, her eyes were wide as she stared in utter disbelief at the person standing in front of them. As the hallucination became real to her, her mouth closed and she got up.
"We didn't expect to... find you, Hazel...", Piper said slowly.
Hazel gave a sigh and a sign to her companions. Everyone jumped from their positions to the ground.
"Well, if it helps... I wasn't expecting to find you either."
"We're not… prisoners, are we?", Jason asked carefully.
She stared at them for a moment.
"No." she eventually answered. "But I have to ask you to come with us. If- If you say no, we'll have to use force." She swallowed and looked at them. "I don't want to do that."
Piper and Jason stood up, after he had been freed from the metal.
"Don't worry", he said and went to give his old friend a hug. "We're here on a mission"
Hazel gave a weak smile. "Nothing has changed, huh?"
Piper smiled.
"Yeah. I guess some things never change", Jason said with a chuckle.
Jason held her arms softly and studied her. "I can't believe how much you've grown!"
She laughed and nodded. "I know, I know! It's… been a long time."
He smiled weakly, Piper looked at her feet before she met Hazel's eyes again.
"How have you been?"
The daughter of Pluto smiled, unsettling Piper a bit. "I'm fine, thank you. And you guys?"
Jason and Piper exchanged a glance. He gently took her hand.
We're fine", and glancing at his girlfriend for confirmation, said: "We're fine, aren't we?"
Piper smiled, giving him a look only he could decipher. "Yeah. Yeah, we are."
Hazel smiled. One of her companions cleared his throat and Jason could've punched him for interrupting their moment.
"Hazel", the man carefully chipped in. "We're close…"
She sighed, nodding as she turned to face her companions.
"I know... I haven't forgotten." She turned back to her friends with a smile, but Piper noticed it was forced.
Jason felt the need to thank her for finding them. Even if she had trapped them at first.
"Thank you, Hazel", he whispered as they followed the group. "We were lost and who knows what monsters could've attacked us if he had stayed longer…"
"There are no monsters here.", Hazel said.
"What do you mean? Hazel! Wait!"
Hazel ignored him. The group had stopped their moving and stood in front of the largest, most gigantic wall Jason had ever seen.
"Every time someone crosses our borders… you could say an alarm goes off and Annabeth sends a group out to check if everything's alright. But we're protected anyway. We built a wall around the main part of the city." She grinned proudly. "My group and I built it. It's… well, it can't be breached."
Jason and Piper shuddered expectantly at the mention of Annabeth, but any questions they had were kept silent, when suddenly the group came to a halt.
A woman whispered something in her ear, but Hazel shook her head and the woman stepped aside. She stretched her fingers, rolled her shoulders to loosen her muscles.
Hazel raised her arm, feeling the earth and metal in the wall. She closed her eyes, exhaled deeply, before opening them again. She moved her arm to the side, stroking the air it seemed. The other arm joined the dance-like movements. Then, as quick as the wind, she lifted her foot and stomped down, her arms stretched to the sides.
The earth trembled and Jason watched in awe as the walls separated slowly. A cliff formed between the walls and it continued to move apart until it was wide enough for them to pass. The walls jerked loudly to a halt as the ground shook again.
Hazel and her companions walked through the entrance. Jason and Piper however stood with mouths agape, their eyes large as they stared at the walls. They caught themselves when Hazel asked if they were coming and followed them through the gate.
The walls were thick and strong. Jason suspected it would be impossible to break through them unless loads of Greek fire was used. And even then it wouldn't be enough. It would still take a lot of effort – the blood and sweat of many soldiers – to conquer the city. He shook his head inwardly. These people didn't need their help.
Hazel turned to Jason and Piper. Her face was a mask of smugness and confidence.
"Cool, right?"
Piper laughed, touching her shoulder. "Didn't know you could do that!"
"Yeah, I learned to do this when we rebuild the walls." She laughed at the memory. "Dear gods… what a horrible day…"
"What do you mean?"
"It rained the whole day. It was awful. The mud… every time I lifted a rock I slipped. And when I tried to stand up again I'd slip again. It sucked."
"And then you moved the walls.", Jason stated impressed.
"Yeah… but that wasn't until late in the night." She shook her head. "We were so tired, you have no idea. My arms and legs and my back hurt like you couldn't imagine! And the rain… the stupid rain."
"Why didn't you stop?", Piper asked. "If it was raining so hard, why didn't you leave it for another day?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. Every time I thought 'bout telling the others to stop, I'd lift a rock and think: 'Just one more and then I'm done'. And before I knew it, it was night."
"And tired." Piper smiled.
"And hurting everywhere. Angry too. Seriously, I don't think I've ever been so angry before."
"Well, I think it's impressive. And brave", Jason said. "That's how Rome was built."
"Ancient Rome or New Rome?" asked his girlfriend.
He shrugged. "Both probably."
They walked for twenty minutes. Piper noticed that the mist had followed them deeper into the city.
"What's up with the mist?" Jason asked loudly. "It's literally everywhere!"
A man, they would later get to know as Abe, turned to him.
"It protects the city"
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
The man smiled. He had a pleasant way to smile, very gentle and warm. "Yeah. But don't ask where it comes from."
Jason frowned and was set to pursue the subject further. But Piper took his hand and squeezed it gently to tell him to drop it. Her boyfriend smiled weakly. The time to ask questions would come later anyway. Probably during dinner. They would have a full plate. And then the friendly, conversational questioning would start. Where are you from? How long have you been together? What do you do for a living?
Just because he grew up among strong and disciplined roman demigods, didn't mean he had no idea how regular dinners worked.
Piper's father had made sure he knew exactly how the questioning was done.
"Just ignore the mist. ", Hazel called from the front.
"Ahh, we're here", a woman sighed.
Piper's eyes widened. The annoying mist grew thinner, the walls were far behind them, now they stood facing the center of the city. There was still a lot of work to do – unfinished buildings, healing ruins and trees in the middle of the streets, but Piper could envision how great this place would become in time.
"It's amazing", she said to Hazel, who smiled proudly.
"Yup. All us", Abe said and stretched his back. "So, m'lady. If you don't mind I'd like to go and greet my family."
Hazel rolled her eyes, one of Abe's friends shoved him jokingly.
"Sure. You're dismissed." The companions cheered.
"So, do they know you're a demigod?", Jason asked.
She shrugged in response. "I'm sure they do. Though I'm not sure they know what that means."
Piper frowned. "And how do they explain your powers then?"
Hazel shrugged again. "Don't know."
"Oh." Piper felt she didn't want to talk about it. "Where are we going?"
"To the pavilion. The headquarters in a way. It's where we usually meet."
"Like the forum in New Rome", Jason said.
"Yeah, something like that. We're not that many. Enough to defend the city against robbers but…"
"Not enough to face an army?"
She nodded solemnly. "Yes."
"I guess that's why you've built the wall."
"Yeah. A city needs protection and the wall is a perfect tool."
Piper shook her head. "I can't believe the news didn't report about the wall and the city. But it's probably the work of the mist, right?"
"Yes."
"And you create the mist?", he asked curiously.
The fact that Hazel evaded his question by pointing at a building and talking about its history, made Piper nervous, disappointed and hurt her. She was confused, could not explain all the secrecy. First the mist, then the strange river and no one felt like explaining anything to them.
They and Hazel, the seven chosen demigods of the prophecy, had gone through so much, lived through suicidal quests and journeys… hadn't that brought them closer? Did Hazel not trust them? Surely, she hadn't forgotten about the Giant War?
A look at Jason was all she needed to confirm that he felt the same.
Why, Hazel? Why all the secrecy?
But Piper didn't ask. And years after she would still ask herself if the future events could have evolved differently if she had only asked more questions.
They followed their friend in silence. Neither of them tried to re-start the conversation. Piper and Jason were too hurt and confused and had hundred questions floating in their heads to try, and Hazel struggled to think for a solution to the mess she had brought herself and her friends into.
"We're here", she announced quietly as the main square.
Piper felt the heat of the campfire emanating, but what she noticed first was the soft music of a guitar. A young man stroke lazily the strings, while an older man – probably his father – groped the keys on the accordion.
Piper felt relief wash over her. Not because the music was good (they were not even really playing) but because it gave her a sign of life.
Her stomach turned painfully at the smell of freshly cooked food. She had forgotten how hungry she was.
They entered the forum as Jason called it. When the people inside saw Hazel they moved to greet her, but hesitated when they noticed the two demigods. A woman rushed her kids into a house and closed the door behind her.
What a warm welcome, Piper thought bitterly.
"Who's that, mommy?", Piper heard a girl ask her mother. The mother shushed her.
"Good afternoon, everyone!", Jason said with a polite and inviting nod.
"We are the good guys", Piper said with determination.
The effect was immediate. Piper was pleased as the people relaxed.
Hazel nodded. "Yeah…yes. They are fine."
"We're sorry", the man with the accordion brushed away the dust from his pants. "We're just not used to any visitors."
Piper smiled. "It's okay. We understand."
The man beamed and went back to his instrument.
"We were told it was safe here!" The woman with the little girl glared at the newcomers. "We were told that no one could-"
"It IS safe, Ebele. The situation hasn't changed."
Piper and Jason froze. Their eyes glanced over to the main building, searching the source of this very familiar voice.
A young woman with curly blond hair and stormy grey eyes stood at the steps to the main building. Their old friend glanced at them with her intelligent eyes, her face was serious and not at all excited to see her old friends.
"Jason, Piper, welcome to New Athens."
