Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
The Ever Twisting Wind: Threshold Breakthrough
Chapter Twenty Seven: Descent into the Asylum
Beta: ShadowofAxios
Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter, was doing some gardening in her backyard on a pleasant Saturday morning when a sudden shadow suddenly fell over the entire suburban street where she lived. Tensing in alarm, the half-blood looked skyward warily and barely kept her mouth from falling open as a massive airship radiating divine power descended from the clouds to hover overhead, casting its shadow over everything in the process.
The loud blast of a fog horn emanated from the massive machine and a pair of search lights shone down from the gondola which quickly zeroed in on her position, silhouetting her in a column of light. At this, any awe she felt went right out the window and was replaced by fear.
Is this a monster attack!?
"Hey Katie! Climb aboard!" The familiar voice of the Aura Wendy said as a long rope ladder was tossed down from the blimp to hang just to Katie's side.
"Wendy!?" Katie gasped incredulously as she looked up at the redheaded wind nymph that was looking down at her from an open door of the airship's gondola.
"Hurry up! We got a que-uh, job for you!" Wendy informed her, tapping her foot impatiently.
"You better do as she asked Katie," her dad said as he walked out of the house and took a sip of his morning coffee, barely paying the divine airship hovering overhead any more attention than a glance or two. "You don't want to keep gods waiting long. Even if they're your friends."
Katie looked at her flowerbed and sighed. Taking off her gloves, the half-blood shot her dad a look. The somewhat heavy set blond haired man smiled around his coffee, looking completely unbothered by the very unusual interruption to their quiet weekend. How he was so calm was beyond her! "Fine, just… I'll be back after this. Water the roses please."
"Sure thing sweetie."
Rolling her eyes at her father's lackadaisical attitude, she grabbed hold of the ladder to begin the long climb up.
The climb was long indeed, having taken her at least fifteen minutes. Thankfully there was no risk of falling since Wendy was there the whole time and kept watch, ready to catch her if she ever lost her grip. The vista that greeted the daughter of Demeter as she finally reached the ship and stood on the deck of what must be Andi's palace- she'd heard it was an airship at some point- was totally worth it.
Looking around, the brunette girl couldn't help but feel a bubbling sense of excitement come over her. Plants of all kinds filled the ship, even the gondola was filled with flora in the form of tree roots and mushrooms growing all around banks of machinery in a harmonious mix of nature and technology. The place just became even more amazing as she followed the impatiently gesturing Wendy up into the airship's envelope which contained a literal forest held within a greenhouse set up within which dryads pranced about as various animals meandered around. Some that Katie didn't recognize and so assumed must be magical animals.
"So cool." She whispered to herself as an Aura waved at her and pointed to a treehouse built into a single massive tree that dominated the forest.
"Yeah, I know Lucy." Wendy replied irritably as she walked past the other Aura as she led Katie directly to the treehouse. "We're running late, but she had to climb the ladder. You know how long that takes. Stupid new decree, without it we wouldn't need to go to all this trouble and could just teleport straight to Andi's side."
"New decree?" Katie asked with a frown.
"Andi will explain." Wendy said with a shrug as they made it to the tree in the branches of which their destination had been built and climbed the stairs, a set of living branches that had been shaped into such, that led into the building. "If she can."
"If?"
"The decree might stop her from giving too many details." Wendy said with an unhappy growl as they walked through the surprisingly simple looking house. Sure, it was grand in that it was massive, the furniture was clearly expensive and the decorations were doubly so, but it wasn't ostentatious like Katie imagined a goddess' palace would be. Guess Andi had the typical godly extravagance bit covered with the whole having a treehouse residence in the middle of an otherworldly garden inside of an airship's interior.
She was thus not shocked at all when Wendy finally led her into a mundane looking dining room. Sitting at the head of the main table was Andi, flipping through some papers and her nose wrinkled with annoyance. Hunter was near her, taking a doggie nap as his tail flopped about.
Oh and she was naked. Katie tried not to feel jealous at how beautiful the goddess looked. She had a figure worth drooling over, perfect perky breasts and a gorgeous posterior, so much better than Katie's own that it would be unnatural to not be jealous.
She's a goddess! Of course she looks perfect! The daughter of Demeter kept telling herself in a bid to shake off her jealousy and only garnering mild success.
"Hello, Lady Andi." Katie greeted and offered a bow, managing to remain polite despite the envy that gripped her. It was still strange to be friends with a goddess. Who knew that the once rambunctious girl who she'd first met at Camp would turn into a deity?
"Oh, hi Katie." Andi said, looking surprised to see her as she looked up from her paperwork. "Sorry didn't expect you to finish the climb already. Sorry about that. Oh, and the nudity too, I can tell it's making you uncomfortable. It's a habit I've picked up lately. Sorry again. I'll put something on."
With that statement, there was a flash of light and suddenly Andi was dressed in a loose tee and cargo pants.
Katie felt mild relief at no longer having a chance to see perfection and feel inadequate in response, but also disappointment at being deprived the chance to further ogle literal divine beauty. Will was a bloody lucky man! She didn't even like girls that way and she couldn't help but say it, that was just how great Andi looked now.
"Have a seat, Katie. I'll finish this up," Andi said gesturing to her paperwork. "Then we'll talk alright?"
"Take your time, my lady." Katie said with a nod as she pulled back a chair and took a seat as ordered.
She was a captive audience to Andi reading what seemed like a stack of reports, occasionally barking orders to an attentive Wendy who scribbled them down on pieces of paper before tossing them out the window where a waiting Aura would collect them and presumably have them delivered to wherever they were needed. Working with an efficiency Katie had never seen from Andi, the young goddess worked through her stack of paperwork that would have taken a mortal hours in mere minutes. Katie wasn't even half done with the cup of tea a helpful dryad had served her before Andi was finished and turning towards her.
"Alright, with that finally out of the way we can get to business." Andi declared as she turned her full attention to Katie. Hunter yawned again, putting his head in Andi's thigh, letting her stroke his ears.
"Hi Katie." Andi greeted with a bright smile and Katie couldn't help but return it. "So how are things going for you? As you can see I've been sort of busy lately."
"Things are fine. Nothing really noteworthy. Not like you." Katie said teasingly. Even if she was a goddess now, Andi was still her friend and making her wait was just rude. Teasing her as payback was a given. "Heard you and Will's last date went well. Even heard Lord Apollo chipped in to make it extra special. So was he any good in bed?"
The daughter of agriculture had expected the goddess of the wild to sputter in embarrassment at being teased like this, but her expectations were misplaced as Andi just smiled like the cat that caught the canary at the question.
"Oh, totally. Did you know he can go six times in a row? He even managed it without any potions or spells this time! I had to train him up to it of course, but mhm, it was worth it!"
"H-Huh?" Katie stuttered to a stop, her cheeks heating up at the news of Will's prowess.
"He especially gets really excited when I reach over and tickle his-"
"Enough!" Katie said, covering her ears. "Too much information! Lady Andi, please stop!"
"Eh? I didn't get to the really naughty stuff. How pure you are, Katie~" Andi teased with an even wider smile than before.
"And you're too free with information." Katie told her, her cheeks aflame. "A simple yes or no would've been good enough for me."
"But that would've been boring~!" Andi sang playfully.
"Andi," Wendy cut into the conversation with a frown. "Remember we don't have all the time in the world."
Katie blinked. They were working on a time limit? Why?
"Thanks for the reminder, Wendy. Wouldn't want to risk Father finding out about what I have planned and the longer Katie is here-"
"The more likely he will," Wendy finished with a nod. "So get down to business already."
"We're doing something behind Lord Zeus' back?" Katie asked warily.
"Eh, kinda sorta?" Andi said while making a wishy-washy motion with her hand. "I'll explain things as we go along okay? But let's start from the important part first. Katie, I have a mission for you. One that is very much not a quest."
"Because a quest would break Lord Zeus' decree?" Katie asked with a frown.
Andi just ignored the question, which was really answer enough, and just continued with her explanation.
"I need you to go summon an avatar of Lord Dionysus for me."
"Mr. D? Why don't you just, I dunno, go speak to him directly?"
"Yeah, here's the thing. I can't." Andi said with a tired sigh. "Father has ordered that Olympus be closed off and Lord Dionysusis is stuck there with all the gods. Any minor gods still active are exploiting loopholes to do so."
"Like you?" Katie asked, with a raised eyebrow.
Andi nodded. "We're supposed to stay in our palaces. Well, my palace happens to be mobile, so I'm mobile. Just gotta be careful with Father noticing me sneaking my friend onboard."
Katie nodded and looked around nervously.
"Don't worry," Andi reassured her. "Right now, Father thinks I'm on Olympus at his lunch feast. We gods can be at two places at once after all. It's pretty hard to do, but I'm learning!"
"Isn't Mr. D there too, can't you ask him your question there?"
"Right in front of Father's nose? I'd get smited for sure! Then grounded!"
She said as if the latter was worse though Katie couldn't fathom why.
Must be a godly thing. Katie thought as she nevertheless nodded in understanding of the situation.
"But enough about that, let's get down to the brass tacks of what you need to do."
At this Katie paid as much attention to what Andi said next as she could, not wanting to miss anything and risk messing up.
"Okay, so you won't be able to summon Lord Dionysus on your own so you'll need to head off to the abandoned Hudson River State Hospital. You'll need to seek some help from my friend Alice, who some of my minions found out is based there."
The brunette haired girl knitted her brows together, and replied with a touch of skepticism in her tone. "Isn't she one of the Technodjinn? You know, your arch-enemies?"
"Yup, but we're still friends. Kinda." Andi said with a shrug. "At least, I trust her enough to feel safe in knowing that she'll help me with this."
Katie was hardly reassured by such stellar words of confidence but nevertheless nodded. It was not like she could refuse a goddess' request after all.
"Now you've gotta be careful at the hospital though, as besides Alice it's also occupied by Sybil and Dr. Borg. Both of whom won't hesitate to kill you if they get the chance."
"And Alice won't?"
"Not if you tell her we're friends."
Sighing, Katie let the matter go.
I know what she's saying but better to be safe than sorry and regard Alice as a threat too.
"Okay, so what do I do after I summon Mr. D?"
"Hand him this," Andi said, handing Katie a sealed letter. It certainly looked official, it even had a wax seal. "And good luck."
With that, Katie was consumed by a brilliant light and a moment later found herself standing back in her backyard with Andi's palace airship nowhere in sight.
"Back already, Katie?" Dad asked from where he was watering the roses. "That was quick."
"How long was I gone?" Katie blinked in surprise. "It felt like half an hour to me."
"About five minutes." Dad said after a quick glance at a clock inside the house that was visible through a window. "So you've got a quest?"
"A mission," Katie corrected as she walked into the house to go gather the gear she would need. "But it's basically the same thing."
"Okay then," Dad said with a nod. "Stay safe, sweetheart."
Katie shot her father a look and kicked his shin. Ignoring the pain, he just chuckled at getting a rise out of her and made a shooing gesture at her.
"Go get ready to head out," he said, still chuckling. "You don't want to keep a goddess waiting."
"No, I don't." Katie echoed with determination.
Thankfully it only took a single Greyhound to get to the Hudson River State Hospital. Well that and plenty of hiking. The place was abandoned and pretty much in the middle of nowhere after all.
Sadly, since it was so out in the middle of nowhere, that allowed the Technodjinn to really go all out on having their monsters patrolling around. Having fought in the Battle of Manhattan, Katie recognized the minions the machine gods had deployed. There were the machine zombies of Dr. Borg and the skeletal robots of Sybil and Alice. One on one either type of monster were tricky enough opponents already but they weren't alone. There were hundreds of the damned things patrolling the place in packs of at least two or three.
"Alright Katie. All you have to do is sneak through enemy territory and try not to be mauled to death." The daughter of Demeter said as she tried to give herself a pep talk whilst she hid in the treeline of the forest that surrounded the hospital. "Now, just how am I supposed to do that?"
A possible answer presented itself when a group of the hospital's surprisingly large number of human staff walked past her position on the way to the carpark. Now normally Katie wouldn't even think of hurting a mortal, but considering these people were openly working with the Technodjinn - they were debating rather loudly among themselves about which type of mechanical monster prowling the hospital was scarier - the daughter of Demeter was feeling a lot less guilty for what she was about to do.
Stalking the small group of mortals from the cover of the woods, she waited until they'd largely dispersed as they headed to their cars. It was just her lucky day that one of them had a car parked just next to the treeline and a quick application of her powers had a twig fly like a makeshift arrow to puncture the man's tire. Specifically the one that was nearest the woods.
To make things even easier for Katie, the man decided to have a smoke before leaving and so told his friends to leave without him. He had the common sense to take the time he was puffing on his cancer stick to make an examination of his truck though but by the time he finally discovered his flat, he was all alone. Just how Katie wanted him.
"Aw crud!" The man cursed as he squatted down to take a look at the tire. "And I just got it replaced too. Damned defective pro-"
He never finished the sentence as Katie stepped up behind him and doused him with a little sleep inducing powder she'd set aside from her last brewing session. You never knew when you needed to knock someone out on a quest, after all.
"That's what you get for smoking, you jerk." Katie said with a smirk of satisfaction as she dragged him into the woods and out of sight of any patrols.
Once she was sure she was safe, the demigod got down to work stripping the man. She'd need both the hospital scrubs he wore, the lazy man thankfully hadn't changed out of them before clocking off like a couple of his colleagues had, and his ID card if she had any hope of sneaking in and out of the hospital.
As she examined the clothing, she couldn't help but frown. Not only because it was two sizes too big for her, she was also deeply uncomfortable at having to essentially wear a set of unwashed clothing that she'd just stripped off a man.
"Beggars can't be choosers." Katie sighed to herself as she began to slip the overly large hospital clothes on top of her own.
A few minutes later, Katie tried to calm her racing heart as she walked past a squad of Dr. Borg's zombies in her disguise whilst praying to any god which might be listening that they didn't see through it.
While the teen was a little on the short side, she hoped that didn't make her look too out of place here. The excessively baggy clothes didn't help. Even with her own clothes under the scrubs padding it out a little, they still hung off her frame and made her seem like a little girl playing dress up in her parents' clothes. So she had real doubts it would work.
The brunette girl thus couldn't help the sigh of relief she let out when the monsters finally marched out of sight.
That this coincided with her finding a convenient little map pinned to the wall of the hallway she was walking through had her almost cheering for joy. The thing indicated all the key facilities on the property with a note printed at the top that read: [For the idiot mortal meatsacks! Stop getting lost or you're getting assimilated!]
That sounded rude, but then again the Technodjinn weren't exactly the nicest sort.
After studying the map for a few moments and memorizing it as best as she was able, Katie headed off to the lodgings area where the 'bosses' were set up. Or at least the area that was declared off-limits to 'idiot mortals'.
Let's hope my luck holds. Katie thought to herself encouragingly as she caught sight of a group of skeletal robots. 'Cause I'm going to need it.
Glancing around the dimly lit hallway, Katie continued her sneaking about. What truly frayed the teen's nerves was the fact there wasn't much security in the 'off-limits' area. Sure there were the odd sentries here or there, but nowhere as many as her instincts were telling her should be there. The whole thing screamed of a trap but Katie focused on finding Alice. Once that was done she could get the heck out of here. Preferably before whatever trap the Technodjinn had set up was sprung on her.
Opening several doors a crack as she'd searched for the right room had shown Katie horrors that she wouldn't soon be forgetting. Honestly, she just wanted to be home working on her orchids or tending to her tulips.
Eventually, after a dozen doors she finally found Lady Alice. Said goddess was sitting in a very comfy looking chair, reading a book with a look of deep concentration on her face.
"Um, Lady Alice?" Katie asked in a whisper. The woman didn't even look up, motioning with her hand to come inside. The demigod did so, closing the door softly behind her.
"Welcome Miss Gardner. Sybil had long predicted you would be coming." The goddess said, carefully putting a bookmark where she was stopping before setting her book down to look at her with those large eyes of hers.
That put Katie on edge faster than anything else. "Is this a trap?"
"No, no," Alice shook her head swiftly. "I only want to help my friend. I am sorry however for not clearing the path more for you."
Oh, so that explained why it was so easy to get in. And here Katie thought her stealth skills were decent for the task. Though the demigod wasn't exactly complaining about getting the goddess' aid.
"If that's the case, you know why I am here Lady Alice?" She asked politely since the goddess was a Seer. Or her twin was. Katie wasn't sure what Alice's domain really was.
"I do." Alice nodded and looked to the side.
Katie watched in amazement as liquid metal started to crawl along the floor, creating an intricate circle of some arcane design that flew over her head. In the middle however was just a plain dried pinecone.
"The pinecone is very important." Alice insisted at the bewildered look Katie was sporting at the development.
"Oh, of course. It's one of his symbols too. I guess there isn't much wine out here."
"No." Alice agreed and stood before the circle as power buzzed through it. "Mother is a total teetotaller. She doesn't allow any alcohol in any of our bases. But the pinecone is good enough."
Snapping her fingers, the magical circle the goddess had created glowed with a psychedelic light that steadily built in intensity. It quickly became blinding before suddenly exploding in a burst of light that left spots in Katie's eyes and unleashed a surge of power.
"What do you want, robot girl?" The familiar voice of Mr. D reached Katie's ears even as she blinked the spots out of her eyes. "I'm very busy right now."
"It's not me Dionysus." Lady Alice said, sounding surprisingly polite in the face of Mr. D's abrasiveness. "The one who wants an audience with you is the half-blood over there. I was just acting as the intermediary here."
"Kasandra Granger? What could you possibly want when I am spending time with my wife." He said with such a dark look that it could have curdled milk.
"Uh, Lady Andi has a letter for you." Katie said nervously as she pulled out the letter Lady Andi had given her.
"Andromeda?" Mr. D asked, blinking in confusion as he snatched the letter from Katie's hands. "What does my sister want?"
He quickly ripped the envelope open and quickly read the letter before crushing it.
"Ridiculous," he said with a snort. "Kodi go tell the brat that I can't help her. The butcher of the tainted-"
The butcher of the tainted? Isn't that one of Lamia's titles? What does Andi want with that monster?
"-may be mad but she's still a powerful magician and has used her magic to conceal herself even from me."
"I will deliver the message," Katie said with a bow.
"We'll see about that." Mr. D said with a snort. "It'll be a miracle if you even manage to escape this place after all."
"Mr. D, what do you mean by that?" Katie asked even as the god vanished.
Alice looked off to the side and frowned. "Ah, it seems the time I bought you has run out. A shame."
Katie felt her heart pounding in her chest at that and looked to the door. It burst open not a moment later as a horde of cyborg zombies and skeletal robots swarmed in. Drawing her celestial bronze dagger, Katie dropped to the ground and rolled towards the pinecone, grabbing it and sprung to her feet. Staring defiantly at the dozens of monsters before her, she brandished both dagger and pinecone as the deadly weapons they were.
"Apologies Miss Gardner," Lady Alice said with a sigh as she picked up her book and sank back into her seat. "But I can't help you. You'll have to fight on your own. Oh! And guys, don't use your guns. I don't want you shooting up my room."
Guess that's a small advantage. Katie thought as the first of the monsters charged her. Guess Lady Alice isn't going to entirely stand aside.
Tossing the pinecone towards the advancing monstrous masses, she poured her power into the floral reproductive structure causing it to sprout. It exploded to life into wooden branches that snaked through the enemy ranks impaling or crushing them as they did. Thus in one move Katie eliminated the bulk of the monsters blocking the way out of Lady Alice's room.
"Miss Gardner, please don't wreck my room either." The aforementioned goddess said with a groan as she surveyed the mess Katie had made.
"Sorry," the daughter of Demeter said insincerely as she spun around the lunge of one of the mechanical zombies and stabbed her dagger right into its spine, severing it and freeing the poor soul from its hellish servitude to Dr. Borg. "I'll try my best."
"Please do," Lady Alice said, even as Katie ducked under one of her skeletal androids trying to cut her in half with the massive bayonet of its lightning gun.
Even as she rolled forward, she lashed out with her knife and cut through the robot at the waist. Her roll put her in the path of another zombie but Katie just reached out to the pine tree she'd spawned and caused one of its branches to slam into its chest, sending it flying and knocking over three more of the few surviving monsters in the room.
This opened a nice little path out of the room and Katie took it, sprinting out and throwing herself into a slide as she crossed the room's threshold. This cautious move saved her from being blasted apart by the trio of green lightning bolts that arced over her head from both sides of the corridor outside courtesy of some of Lady Alice's skeletal robots. Reaching to the pine tree once again she had a barrage of pinecones shoot out into the corridor. It didn't hit anything, but that was never her intent.
"Eat pine, you tin cans." Katie said with a smirk as she used her new ammunition to grow a new set of pine trees to clear a path for her as she continued making her break for freedom.
"Good luck, Miss Gardner." Lady Alice shouted out at her as she ran down the corridor under the protective cover of her pine trees. "I hope you survive."
"Thanks, Lady Alice!" The daughter of Demeter shouted back as she leapt over an impromptu wall of pine wood to land on the shoulder of a mechanical zombie that unloaded a shot from its arm mounted energy cannon into her wall.
The move unbalanced it, and it swayed back and forth on the verge of falling over. Something Katie helped along greatly by kicking off its shoulders, but not before stabbing her dagger through its brain. Her leap allowed her to grab hold of a long strip lamp hanging from the ceiling and swing herself into the chest of a skeletal android, which she promptly decapitated with a swing of her dagger before rolling off her kill.
Smoothly getting to her feet, the brunette continued her break for freedom, killing any and all monsters that stood in her way.
Fifteen minutes and dozens of dead abominations later, Katie was nearly home free. She was running across the hospital's grounds and could see the treeline just ahead. If she could just make it into the forest, she'd be safe.
That was easier said than done though.
Stopping in the parking lot, Katie could only stare up as shock crossed her features at her latest obstacle. "W-What the hell!?"
Standing in her way was a hexapedal combat walker reminiscent of an enormous mechanical spider with a massive underslung cannon glowing with ominous green energy being piloted by Lady Alice.
"L-Lady Alice?"
"I am sorry about this, Miss Gardener. Normally I wouldn't be attacking you, but Mother gave me a firm directive to end you. Once more, I do apologize." The monotoned goddess informed with a smidgen of regret.
Katie gripped the last of her pinecones tightly in her hand and firmed her resolve.
Sure she was fighting a goddess but she had nature on her side. She could still win this!
With this determination in mind, the demigod threw the pinecone right under the machine. At the same time, the machine fired a bolt of sickly green energy from its cannon.
Thankfully, a full blown hundred foot tall tree growing under you really throws off your aim. That and Katie throwing herself to the side, saved her from disintegration like the poor pair of cars that the crackling energy bolt had hit. Though they weren't very eco-friendly, so they could rot.
"Good move, Miss Gardner." Lady Alice said, sounding genuinely admiring even as she had her walker blast its way out of the restraining branches of Katie's pine tree with its set of inbuilt rocket engines. "I hope you can keep it up. Then maybe you might still survive this."
"Oh, I'll survive alright." Katie shouted back defiantly as she had her latest pine tree shoot a barrage of pine cones at Lady Alice's walker which was now hovering in the air on a combination of its rocket boosters and probably some anti-gravity power. Sadly, her floral projectiles simply bounced off the walker's energy shield.
"Bravado will only get you so far, I'm afraid." Lady Alice said with a shake of her head as she had her walker begin opening fire in rapid fire bursts at the daughter of Demeter.
"Crap!" Katie cursed, as she had the pine tree rapidly grow to provide her some cover.
Sadly, her woody cover barely slowed down the barrage and shattered almost instantly, sending shrapnel and Katie herself flying. The impact with the ground jarred the daughter of Demeter and she briefly lost her sense of her surroundings.
"Ah…" Katie blinked as she regained her bearings and immediately noticed something terrifying: the feeling in her legs were gone! W-Was she hit in the spine? She shakily looked and found nothing there. "Oh…"
Tears welled up in her eyes as there wasn't even any pain to cry over. Yet… she was going to die.
"Apologies for this, Miss Gardner." Lady Alice said as she drew her personal gun and leveled it at Katie. "But trust me when I say this. This is better than being assimilated."
"Small mercies, huh?" Katie said as she closed her eyes, tears rolling down her face. "I hope it's painless."
"It is." Lady Alice assured her. "Rest in peace, Miss Gardner."
Even with her lids shut, she could see green light fill her darkened vision and moments before she lost consciousness altogether a burst of golden light.
Katie inhaled deeply as her eyes opened. There wasn't a death machine over her nor was she in some lab being dissected. She wasn't in the Underworld either. At least she didn't think so. So where was she?
"I-Is this Andi's palace?" She mumbled to herself as she looked around her and noted that a few of the trees that surrounded her looked familiar. Even the animals seemed similar. "This isn't some strange Technodjinn torture device is it?"
"Nope. This really is my palace." Andi said as she took a seat on the bed that Katie only just noticed that she had been lying on. "I saved you."
A smile wormed its way across Katie's face, utter joy bouncing around in her chest. "Andi, thank you!"
She moved to hug her friend, but noticed that her arms were different… They were smaller!?
"H-Huh?!" She asked, looking at her childish palms, then started to examine the rest of herself. A much smaller, much less developed version of herself. Instead of an eighteen year old on the verge of heading off to college, she was a child again! At best, five or six years old!
"Yeah… I didn't have many options so I uh…"
"What did you do?" Katie asked worriedly, her mind running through the myriad of horrible possibilities.
"I made you into a young dryad." Andi smiled fondly, reaching over to stroke her hair. "I thought it would be best. I already talked with Aunt Demeter. She's just thankful you're alive."
"I'm a dryad? But I'm not a plant!"
"You are now actually," Andi said with a wince as she picked up a pine sapling in a pot that had been sitting next to Katie's bed.
Katie had not noticed it before now but as Andi picked it up, she found that her perspective was split in a way it hadn't been when she was human. One was the familiar perspective from her now much younger human body, but the other new one was that of her plant self.
"Here," Andi said, handing the pot towards Katie who grabbed it and embraced it tightly like a lifeline as tears made out of sap began to pour down her face.
Oh gods! This is real isn't it!? I almost died and got turned into a dryad to save my life. What about my old life? I was about to go to college, find a boyfriend, get married, and start a family. What about all that!?
"I thought it would be better than being an Aura." Andi continued in a ramble trying to be as comforting as she could manage. "If it helps I am so sorry this happened. I knew it was dangerous, but-"
"I-It's not your fault." Katie hiccuped, she felt warm sap dripping down her cherubic cheeks. "If not for you, I'd be as good as dead."
"But I sent you on that mission in the fi-"
"Ssh!" Katie said, sternly. Or as sternly as she could with sap rolling down her cheeks. "It was a hero's death. That's more than most half-bloods get. Besides, thanks to you, it didn't even stick."
Andi sighed heavily, holding the newly made dryad closer and nodded. "Alright. Do you need anything right now?"
"I, I would like you to stay here. I could use a friend right now." Katie mumbled as her sap dripped down her face.
"I can do that, sure thing."
Katie moved her small arms around Andi's body ahd sobbed. Both from sadness at what she'd lost and the sheer relief of being alive.
Later in her first day as a dryad, Katie found herself sitting on a bench inside Andi's Palace hugging her potted plant self and staring into space wondering what to do with her new life. What did nature spirit do anyways? To her shame, despite being a child of Demeter Katie realized she never bothered to find out in her past life.
"Why don't you become Andi's lieutenant among the dryads?" Wendy suggested as she materialized on the bench next to Katie, lazily kicking her feet in the air.
"Were you reading my mind?" Katie asked, blinking in shock that the Aura knew what she had been thinking.
"Nah," Wendy said with a shake of her head. "It was just obvious what you were thinking. You had that whole lost look on your face, so I just made a guess. Glad I was right."
Katie nodded, pacified.
"So what about my suggestion? Game for it?" Wendy pressed, looking at her eagerly.
"Uh, what's that mean? Being Andi's dryad lieutenant I mean." Katie asked cautiously.
With as new as she was to her new life, - She wasn't even a day old as a dryad! - she wasn't about to jump into things. Not without learning all there was to know beforehand.
"Well," Wendy said, a smirk on her face as if she was sure Katie would agree. "Andi already has lieutenants for the Aurae, me, and Grover for the satyrs, but no one for the plant spirits. She offered the spot to Clytie but she declined, so since you're one now, you can fill that role."
"And what does being Andi's lieutenant mean?" Katie asked, intrigued but still cautious.
"Basically?" Wendy said with a shrug. "Just do whatever Andi tells you to do basically. Oh, and command the dryads on her behalf when needs be. You know, relaying her orders for them when she has them. Settling their affairs too so they don't cause trouble for Andi."
"Aren't they all older than me and stronger?"
Wendy looked around before leaning in, "Truth is most of them are older but they also basically have bark for brains. They're mostly pretty simple. Plus as a child of Lady Demeter, you are actually much stronger than the majority of them and that's when you were a demigod. You're stronger now! It's actually kind of scary. So they'll listen and respect you if you agree. So there's nothing to worry about, right?"
Katie considered it. It did seem like a good deal.
"I'll think about it." The daughter of Demeter said thoughtfully. "I'm not about to jump into things right now. Not after l just escaped death."
"Totally understandable." Wendy nodded with a pout. "Well, I hope you agree. It's a good job, trust me. The benefits rock!"
Katie just nodded and looked off into the distance as she mulled over the possibility. Wendy for her part sighed and transformed into a warm breeze before blowing away, leaving the new dryad to her thoughts.
"So Mom, I should agree?" Katie asked the image of her mother in the IM she was using to talk to the goddess of agriculture.
"Of course dear! It's a great honor. You would do fine with the work too, you were always so diligent. Plus Andromeda has taken Pan's place in the Association of Nature Gods. With that we can meet during nature meetings. That's loads more frequently than we used to."
"That's a thing?" Katie said, blinking in shock.
"Of course. I've been the head of the Olympian chapter of the Association since my first harvest!"
Katie could only nod in shock. She was learning new things about how the gods worked that she'd never known practically every conversation she had now that she was a dryad and at least temporarily part of Andi's inner circle. As a demigod she'd thought the gods, most of them at least, were all do nothings that sat on Olympus and in their godly palaces enjoying the height of luxury while ordering their minions, such as half-bloods like she had been, to do all the hard work. Instead, she was discovering that they were actually very busy doing all kinds of things to keep the world running. It was frankly humbling to know just how much the gods actually did!
Too bad she couldn't just blurt this out to Camp. Apparently the gods wanted to maintain their appearance of aloofness. That and the Ancient Laws prevented them from revealing such things. As usual the damned Laws sucked.
"Now, go tell your cousin you agree. That way I can send some of my elder dryads your way to help you start up. They've been with me for centuries, so I know they'll make good assistants for you."
"I will," Katie nodded as she smiled at her mother. "I'll go do it right now. Bye, Mom, talk to you again soon."
"And I'll see you at the next Association meeting. Till then, goodbye daughter."
With that the image of her Mom disappeared, transforming back into the perpetual rainbow that stretched across a magical screen that surrounded a special fountain in Andi's extensive garden. It was damned convenient and Katie was going to have to convince Andi to donate one of these things to Camp.
"But that's for later. Gotta say yes to the job offer first." Katie said to herself as she turned away from the fountain to go find the palace's owner.
"You want to be my dryad lieutenant?" Andi asked, blinking in surprise as she looked at Katie. "Did Wendy put you up to this?"
"I just gave her the suggestion," the Aura admitted with a shrug from where she was laying on the floor as she watched some television.
Oh, and she was doing it nude. But what's new? Andi was taking the opportunity of being home for the day to do the same.
Damn my domain for making me a nudist!
"Yes, I want to be your dryad lieutenant, Lady Andi." Katie repeated firmly.
"You, uh, absolutely sure? I mean it's got consequences, like, um, as you can see we, ah, are kinda nudists now thanks to my domain as the goddess of the wild. Not sure whether it'll affect you, but it might. It affected Wendy."
Katie just rolled her eyes. "I am a daughter of agriculture. It might not be a child of the wild but it was quite close. I've never been a nudist myself, but I've got nothing against it nor am I adverse to it. And that's if it becomes an issue. I mean Wendy is your partner, that's a deeper connection to you than I'll have right? So it's entirely likely that it won't even affect me. "
Damn! I was really hoping that would've convinced her otherwise.
"She has a point there." Ida agreed from where she was reading through something, more reports that Andi had to go through later, whilst thankfully fully clothed.
"Well, if you're sure!" Andi said, not able to dissuade her. "Now, onto the ceremony!"
"There's a ceremony?" Wendy asked, with a roll of her eyes. "I didn't have one."
"Just a little something to make things official." Andi told her with her own roll of her eyes. "Like when I agreed to have you become my partner."
That mollified her partner and she returned to watching her television show.
"I dub thee, Katie 'Pine' Gardener, my lieutenant for the dryads!" Andi declared, causing Katie to be surrounded by a brief golden glow that left the young dryad feeling more in some immaterial way.
"And now you need to give her something as a symbol of her new status." Ida chimed in as she nodded in satisfaction.
"What do you mean, Ida?" Andi asked, with a frown. Symbol of power for my lieutenant? Since when was that a thing?
"You know just like my Phoenix Feather and Grover's rank and power as Lord of the Wild?" Wendy said with a sigh. "You can be so clueless sometimes, Andi, you know that?"
"Ah! I get what you two are talking about now. Uuuh, um, okay give me a second here." Andi pondered, her brow furrowed in thought as she glanced around until her eyes landed on the pot that held Katie's plant self. "Oh! Idea! Katie, bring forth your pot!"
Katie looked at her skeptically but didn't hesitate to hand it over.
Smiling at her friend's trust, Andi took the pot and poured a smidgen of her power into the clay pot transforming it into something that would serve as a fitting symbol for Katie. Thanks to her power, the simple pot came alive. A large sharp toothed mouth grew along its side and a pair of pseudopods that looked vaguely like grossly elongated arms sprouted from either side of its new maw.
"A Mimic?" Wendy asked, a smirk as the others surveyed the creature after Andi handed the pot back to Katie. "You've been playing too much D&D lately."
"Hey! It fits and that's what's most important." Andi said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest.
"What can it do?" Katie asked as she examined her new pet.
"Show off a little, creature."
At Andi's order, the creature immediately stretched its mouth outwards which snapped at the air like a crocodile, whilst simultaneously snapping its pseudopods like whips and spitting several bullets of acid out the window.
"Wow! Cool!" Wendy and Katie both cooed.
"So what are you gonna call it?" Wendy said, turning to look at Katie questioningly.
Katie blinked and just eventually shrugged, "Brick?"
"Huh? Why that?" Wendy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Honestly? 'Cause I can't really think of anything better."
"Well, I think it's a perfectly good name." Andi opined.
The newly dubbed Brick also moved its mouth up and down in what seemed to be its version of a nod.
"See, even Brick agrees." Andi preened, smiling widely and performed a perfect hair flip. "Truly my gift is amazing!"
"Yes, our goddess." Ida, Wendy and Katie chimed as one.
After spending a long day catching her dad up on what had happened to her, Katie was returning home to Andi's Palace.
Andi should really give it a name!
Speaking of her dad, he had taken her new state of being surprisingly well. Like her, he was just happy she wasn't dead. Again like her, he was happy that Katie had such a good friend as Andi who not only saved her but gave her an honored position as her dryad lieutenant and head gardener in her palace.
She was pulled from her thoughts when she spotted Andi and Wendy getting ready to leave whilst Ida looked on.
"You two are going out?" Katie asked, curiously. "Isn't Lord Zeus' decree still in effect?"
"Yeah, but this can't wait." Andi said with a sigh. "I'll just have to risk Father's ire. Lamia is a real threat especially now that she's working for the Earth Mother and needs to be dealt with."
"You have a plan? 'Cos like I told you, Mr. D can't help with this."
"We do," Wendy assured her. "Lady Hecate and Andi have come up with a new plan. One that we're going off to get started working on."
"Okay then," Katie said with a satisfied nod and a wave goodbye. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Andi said with a nod. "We'll be back soon. Bye."
With that Katie's new mistress and Wendy disappeared in a burst of golden light.
"Okay, time to get to work." Katie said with a nod as she headed off to have a talk with the spirits of the garden's creeper vines, they've been naughty and trying to strangle the life out of a couple of its trees
It's time to show them who's boss.
Omake: Frenemy's Girls Night
"Why are we inviting her again?" Katie asked with a pout, holding Brick and her plant self tight even as Brick tried to comfort her. "Couldn't we have a Girls Night without her? She killed me!"
"Sorry about that," Lady Alice said as she teleported into the living room of Andi's treehouse in a burst of green binary code where they had set up for the aforementioned Girls Night. "Killing you I mean, Miss Gardner."
Katie flinched and pulled away, hiding behind Wendy and shivering in fear whilst the Aura patted her arm comfortingly.
Lady Alice frowned and looked at Katie with genuine regret.
"It was all Mother's fault. She can be such a hassle at times." She said with a sad sigh.
Katie just blinked at her in confusion.
"That's because GLaDOS is a total helicopter parent. Nearly puts Phaethon's mom and sisters to shame on that front." Andi snorted as she laid back.
"I honestly have no idea what you two are talking about, but I guess I can somewhat relate." Katie allowed warily. "Mom can be a smother too."
"Well, she made me do it. Kill you I mean." Lady Alice explained with a grimace.
"Oh!" Katie said with a nod. "Um, that makes things slightly better. I guess?"
"So we're good?" Lady Alice with a hopeful smile.
"Uh, I guess?" Katie agreed uncertainly.
"Good. Now with all that awkwardness outta the way." Andi said with a clap of her hands. "Then let's get this Girls Night started!"
One movie later, Andi, Alice, Katie, Wendy and Ida were just chilling over some wine inside Andi's living room.
"Lady Alice, mind I ask a question?" Wendy asked with a teasing grin.
"Sure, what is it?" Lady Alice replied with a welcoming smile.
"Okay then. So I was wondering since you were a robot and all, shouldn't you be drinking motor oil?"
"I take offense to that," Lady Alice said with an amused smile that told her that she was only joking. "I'll have you know that my body is a very advanced android, it can handle wine just fine. Besides if I wanted a machine drink then I'd rather go for energon."
"But can you get drunk?" Andi asked in mock seriousness.
"Try me," Alice shot back daringly.
"Oh, we'll certainly give it a go tonight." Andi replied with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"By the way, energon is real?" Katie couldn't help asking. "I thought that was only something from Transformers."
"My sister made it. She thought it was appropriate for us."
"Chell or Sybil?" Andi asked, curiously.
"Chell," Alice said with a sigh. "You think my twin would get off her inflatable rear to do anything? All she knows how to do is blow up toasters. She might be an Oracle but she just doesn't know how to do the most basic stuff."
"Well, to be fair she is just a collection of brains." Ida reminded them. "I don't think she has a butt to move or the hands to do most things."
"Miss Ida, you are being far too nice to her." Alice huffed, a rosy tint to her cheeks. "Now, let's stop talking about my twin. I have a contest to win."
"Contest?" Katie asked warily, clutching her sapling close.
"Borg said that normal meatsacks, his words, can't be cute." Alice told them with a grimace, pouting firmly. "So I told him off, since, ya know, I look like a normal person, and promised that I'd prove it to him."
"How?" Wendy asked curiously.
"Photos of course! Photos!" Alice exclaimed, spilling some of her wine as she threw her arms up in the air in her excitement. "And ya'll are going to help me!"
"Are we now?" Andi asked with a grin.
"Yup!" Alice said, uncharacteristically popping the 'p'. "Two of ya are, like, embodiments of moe! If anything can convince stuffy ol' Borgy it's them."
Katie shivered in fright, holding her sapling all the tighter.
"You're drunk?" Andi asked, eyeing her wine suspiciously. "Ida, is this wine that strong?"
"No, it appears Miss Alice is just a lightweight."
"Am not!" Alice pouted with flushed cheeks as she glared at the chair next to Miss Ida.
"Uh, do we need to take photos for her?" Wendy asked cautiously.
"Yes… but with costumes! The interwebs tell me so!" Alice decreed as with a snap of her fingers a veritable wardrobe of costumes appeared in a cloud of green binary code. "Ninety two percent states cat ears make everything cuter."
Katie exchanged a look with Wendy.
The Aura shrugged and accepted the cat ears headband that Alice offered her.
This is my life now, isn't it? Katie lamented.
"Don't like cat ears, huh, Katie?" Andi mused from where she was inspecting Alice's collection. "Hey, Wendy, there's an outfit here which would match that headband, wanna try it out?"
"I guess," Wendy said halfheartedly as she wandered over to check it out.
"No, no, we give her elvy ears because of her icky nature thingy." Alice instructed Andi as if imparting peerless wisdom.
"Nature isn't icky," Katie whispered under her breath, not needing Ida's stern warning glare to know not to let the Technodjinn hear her.
"Am I an icky nature thingy?" Andi playfully asked.
"Yeah, but it's a cute icky!" Lady Alice hiccuped and giggled as she cocked a finger. This caused a costume to fly off the racks and into Katie's hands.
"Try this on," the brunette insisted.
It was a fancy fantasy dress that combined with the slip on ear extensions would make her look totally like some elven princess. It even had a flower crown!
"And Ida, well, she's too tall for Moe. So she can watch." Alice brushed off, causing Miss Ida to actually look a little stung. "Andi, Andi! We need to dress you up too~!"
"Only, if you dress up too." Andi haggled. "Maybe as, I dunno, a police officer?"
"That's random." Alice noted. "I love it! Maybe a constable outfit. They have cute little hats."
"Now, what do you want me to wear?" Andi asked curiously.
"Hmm… Oh! I know! You can be a phantom thief! We can take a joint shot! You'll pretend to steal something and I'll be the policewoman chasing you."
"And I of course escape and you shake your fist swearing to catch me next time?"
Alice nodded enthusiastically.
"And, I'll wear this," Miss Ida said pulling, of all things, a sexy demonic dominatrix outfit off the racks.
"Meep!" Katie and Wendy squeaked.
Even Brick, Katie's flowerpot Mimic, shuddered in alarm in her arms.
In contrast, Alice just got excited. "Oooh! That's brilliant! We can go with both sexy and moe! Borgy will have to admit defeat once I show him the photos!"
"Can I get copies of mine? I want to send some to my boyfriend." Andi's cheeks were pink even as there was an excited gleam in her eyes.
And that was how the girls night out with Lady Alice, the goddess who killed me - And no, constantly reminding people of that is not me being bitter! She killed me damnit! -, somehow turned into a cosplay photoshoot.
We never did find out what Dr. Borg thought about the shots, but since he uploaded the photos to the internet with some rather nice comments we had a pretty good idea. Considering even I thought the photos looked good, I can't fault him.
I especially liked the one where they had me carry my sapling over my head and run away from Wendy like we were playing a game of tag. It made us both look so childishly innocent! I love it!
Weirder though was that what happened seemed to spark some kind of obsession in Lady Alice, since from then on she began to be found at every cosplay event ever. And I do mean every one. She is a goddess after all.
Now, if only she didn't try to drag Andi along all the time too.
Or Andi stopped agreeing to go so often.
Couldn't blame her though, apparently Will liked the photos too. A lot, if you get what I mean. She was just collecting more, ahem, stimuli.
Wendy and Miss Ida didn't really get much out of it though.
At least on the surface of it, but if you looked deeper...
Well, Miss Ida kept the whip from the dominatrix outfit and I sometimes see her practising with it. Don't ask me what she says when she does though, I'm still praying for actual brain bleach to make me forget it. Andi is being stingy though. But if you must know, well… Let's just say she likes fantasizing about her sister groveling at her feet and being a good girl. Blech!
As for Wendy… Well, let's just say the little Aura - And doesn't it sting my pride to think she's now considered older than me! - has discovered a newfound love of cats. We've got a dozen kittens running all over the palace already and it's only been a couple weeks! They keep scratching the trees!
Worse, I'm pretty sure she's petitioning Andi to make catgirls a legit thing too. I really hope Andi rejects it. Cleaning the litter boxes for ordinary cats is bad enough, I can't imagine how bad it could be for actual people sized cats!
As for me? Well, let's just say I liked that cosplay dress and leave it at that. And no, dad, I'm not regressing to being a little girl playing dress up! Stop thinking that.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless and Axios as always!
Now this was a new avenue for Andi. Katie was a fun take on this chapter to work around Andi.
Nameless: Yup, having this chapter from the POV of a half-blood seeing how Andi's changed was a refreshing take on things. It certainly sheds new light on things, no?
And damn, I did not realize how deadly a pinecone could be with someone who had nature powers. Seriously, it was nuts. Yet, it was for naught in the end.
Nameless: Indeed. Katie put up a good show but it was sadly not enough. Poor Katie.
At least Katie got a sweet new gig at the end. Plus she got a Mimic! Hooray for Mimics, a DM's ever useful monster!
Nameless: Yeah, Katie scored quite a good second life didn't she? At least we thought so. Hope you guys agree.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!