Chapter 11

Jess set Jo down in a grassy patch of what turned out to be an honest to goodness forest, and not one of those tree lines separating the stupid, stupid fields.

Her voice was tight, like it was stuck in her throat. "One of you, start a fire and offer whatever we have to Apollo. Where's her bag?" Jess found it, and started digging through it until she found the tent. She set the little stick down, and said, "Thalia is my favorite cousin." It immediately expanded into a tent. "Whoever isn't working on the fire, find me a large rock, or something. We need to elevate her legs because of the shock." Then she scooped Jo right back up, and brought her into the tent.

As she waited, she looked through the medic's pack, hoping one of the other children of Apollo might have given Jo something useful. Jess didn't know that much about first aid; it had taken a lot just to scrounge up the information about elevating the legs. "And keep them warm." she muttered to herself. "That was the other part. Keep them warm." She found some blankets, and wrapped Jo up as best she could, while silently offering prayers to Jo's divine dad, hoping he wouldn't want to see his daughter die. Ian and Caleb burst through the tent flap, dragging a large rock. The three of them managed to prop Jo up so that her feet were above her head, encouraging the blood that she still had to stay where it was needed.

"Please tell me someone else knows more about first aid?" Jess pleaded.

The boys slowly shook their heads. "I didn't even remember this part before you mentioned it." Ian admitted.

There was a short silence before Caleb spoke up. "You're glowing."

"What?"

"Like, there's this greyish red aura all around you."

Jess looked down at herself. "I don't see it."

"It's way fainter than before." Ian elaborated. "But it's there. It appeared when you started taking on the karpoi single handed. It's-it's gone now."

In that exact moment, Jess felt her knees buckle, and fell over as her legs just gave up on holding her.

"Jess!"

"What happened?"

Jess winced. Everything ached all over. She felt the sudden strain of the exertion it had taken to battle so many karpoi and then carry Jo all the way here. Her mind felt dazed too, like it was trying to catch up. Why had she fallen over? That was a silly thing to do. "Shouldn't someone be watching the fire?" she muttered.

Caleb looked hesitant, but eventually left to keep an eye on it, given his ability to put it out should something go wrong. "Figure out what's going on." he told Ian.

"Jess, are you okay?"

"No. I ache all over and I don't know why everything is so much darker. And quieter. It's weird. And I feel different. Calmer I think, but it still hurts. Why am I on the ground?" She said, the words coming in a stream of consciousness pattern. She managed to prop herself up on her elbows.

"It's weird that it would only happen when the glow faded. Do you have any idea what happened to you? Why you started glowing in the first place?"

"You glow sometimes." Jess muttered, her thoughts far away. "I'm really tired."

"What I don't - when do I glow?"

"Once. It was all purple. When you made me fly. And then Bri made me fall. That hurt. Stupid Bri."

"When I made you - with the cyclops. And that was the first time I ever did any kind of magic besides madness. It was like I had help from someone...from a god. Purple...my dad helped me with that magic. So when you defeated all of them, your mom was helping you take revenge! Oh, I get it now. Because you displayed vengeance, you got her blessing. And when you didn't have any way to avenge someone anymore, you suddenly felt all the effort from before."

Jess took a moment to refocus her eyes on his face. "I'm tired."

"Yeah, that makes sense." he murmured. "I'll get your bedroll out for you. You need a nap."

Jess managed to crawl into the sleeping bag, but almost immediately fell asleep. As she was drifting into unconsciousness, she heard Ian unzip the tent and ask Caleb if he wanted to watch the fire or the invalids and then...sleep.

Except of course she couldn't get any actually restful sleep. In her dreams, she was standing...nowhere. It was all a blinding white, and there was nothing. From nowhere and everywhere, a voice echoed into her ears. Starting over. Starting without all of the war, the hunger, the corruption. Everyone's sufferings would end. Would you stand in the way of that, Jessica Tewers? If you keep going, everything that ever goes wrong, no matter how big or small, will be your fault. Only yours. Every problem in the world will be yours. Yours to prevent, or yours to enable. You can walk away now, and save so much suffering.

"By that logic, everything that goes right will also be hers. The scales will always balance in the end." A woman's voice sounded. "I'm proud of you, Jess."

Jess wanted to ask what was going on, but the dream dissolved into somewhere else. She knew where this was. It was her dad's work, his law firm. That was probably why he had attracted Nemesis, she realized. Because he tried to even the scales. Everything felt too calm, too perfect. A different voice spoke in her head. You were warned. You chose to continue. You shall feel the consequences. She knew the voice too. It sent a shiver down her spine. He would never...would he? The building started burning around her. She tried to leave, but all the doors were gone. She wanted to cry out for help, but there was no one there.

A swan, that she was sure hadn't been there before, spoke to her. "Thank you. I can't interfere directly, but since my time, I have more compassion for your kind. My companion's sister lives nearby. I'm sending you help. She won't die, not like this. The Fates have decreed that much, she must meet the other." The swan flew away, out a window that disappeared with it. Jess was clawing at the walls, trying not to breath in all the smoke when the dream passed into darkness, and she slept soundly.

Author's Note:

Shout outs!

Let's all give our attention to MyLifeKindaIsALie,because they both followed and favorited, like a fricking boss.

And over here, we have Fairyn, an absolute queen who also favorited!

As for reviews, we have ThatGirlWithaCat! Nia! Nia, is that you? I laughed so hard, bro. And if I'm not mistaken, Mount Tam is in San Francisco, right? (Hold on, I'm gonna check Titan's Curse real quick. Yup, Mount Tam is the correct mountain. I couldn't remember if that was the one from Lost Hero or Titan's Curse, but the one I'm thinking of is Mount Tam. That was a tangent and a half)

Also, thank you so much for the suggestion. I think for at least Jess's last rampage, I mostly reconciled it in this chapter, but as a whole, I'm going to slap some flaws all over them. I enjoy slapping my OCs around. (and every character in my fics, let's be real here)

Nymph of Faeryland: Yes. Just yes.

Have a lovely day!

justapercyjacksonfan