AN: I do not own the characters nor do I profit in any way from dibble dabbling in the PJO/HOO verse. All credit for the playground that I'm trouncing around goes to Rick Riordan. Anything malicious and sinister, however, is my own devious mind.

Tempting the Fates

Chapter 35

Girl Talk

Piper

"Mrs O'Leary!"

Hazel's caramel colour hair flounced behind her as she ran as fast as her legs could take her. As it turned out, it wasn't particularly fast. She wouldn't be joining the track team any time soon. Teeth dug into her bottom lip and Piper cast her eyes downwards. That was a nasty thought, she chastised herself. She seemed to be having more of them lately. Even before Jason. Before Cupid and his stupid whatever-had-happened had happened. Since coming to the ancient lands she'd been more on edge. Her powers less under her control. And Katoptris? The things it showed her were darker, more twisted, and harder to understand. Just glimpses really. Many things she couldn't make out. She wondered how many of them might have been Tartarus… but didn't dare mention that to anyone. Especially not Hazel.

"She must… have caught… something's scent."

Her friend is practically doubled over, one arm holding her stomach whilst the other rests across her knee. She's bent over herself and breathing raggedly when Piper catches up to her. The daughter of Aphrodite runs her hand along the girl's back and gives it a gentle rub.

"If I'm being entirely honest? I wasn't looking forward to shadow travelling back yet. I'm pretty sure I already threw up the tofu dog I had for dinner. I don't really want to re-experience the spicy bean burger.

Hazel makes a strangled noise she interprets as a chuckle. Albeit, a very lost-for-oxygen one. When the younger girl finally rights herself, Piper slips an arm around her waist and begins walking with her in the direction which the hellhound had taken off like a bat out of… well… hell.

"What do you think she meant?"

"About what?" Piper asked, looking down at the other girl.

"About it mattering… but not in a way that's meaningful to humans. What do you think she meant?"

"Honestly, I don't want to think about it." Maybe it's because they're in the Underworld and silence feels about a hundred times more quiet than silence above ground. Maybe it's because of all the horrible things she's seen in Katoptris. Or maybe it's that everything feels wrong at the moment. Sliding her arm from Hazel's back, Piper wraps her arms around herself as if to fight off a chill (she's not cold, not exactly, but there's a shiver working its way up her spine and it seeps deep into her bones). No matter, she continues. "We delivered the sceptre to Styx. She's going to give it to Nico and Percy… that much is clear. And the only one that could use it would be Nico, right?"

"Yeah. I don't see how a son of Neptune— Poseidon," she corrected herself, "would find it very useful."

"But Nico isn't Roman. It calls forth the undead, doesn't it? Soldiers who believed in the old gods. Greek. Roman."

"Right… but they need a praetor to lead them. Percy isn't Roman."

"And Nico doesn't exactly fit in anywhere." The words are out of Piper's mouth, again, before she can stop herself. Swallowing (and half wishing she could gag down her tongue and maybe her ability to say the worst things possible to, like, basically everyone), she holds herself more tightly. "I'm sorry… but you know what I mean. He might be a delegate or respected at Camp Jupiter but he's not a praetor."

"Death is never welcome. It doesn't matter how natural it is." Hazel's voice catches at the end. Her breathing is uneven once more but this time it's not from running. Stopping on the spot, Piper turns to face the younger demigod. She's practically a head shorter than her and it's not exactly like Aphrodite's daughter is fantastically tall. "It's not his fault."

"Hazel." Piper's voice grows stronger as she takes the other girl by the arms, holding her as she fixes her two-toned gaze on her. Hazel doesn't meet it at first and when she does, she's certain the other isn't going to thank her for what she says next but if there's one thing she can do? It's tell the truth. "It is his fault. At least partly. No— let me finish. He knew the second he laid eyes on Percy who he was and he never told him. He didn't say anything to you, or to Percy, or to Annabeth… or to Percy's mom. Can you even imagine how worried his mom must have been?"

"He had a good reason…"

"I'm not saying he didn't. The fate of the camps… blah blah blah. Your father threatened to turn him into a pomegranate and serve him at the Underworld buffet… Whatever the reason was, it still isn't good enough." Nico was weird. And creepy. He lurked like a shadow and slunk around the edges of everyone's vision as if to keep directly out of sight. Without trying it was like he disappeared. The Italian might be alive when they rescued him from the jar, but he may as well have been a ghost. Piper didn't mention any of this, of course. Or the way that the other set her on edge. Made goosebumps crawl up her skin. After all, he was a demigod. He was still Hazel's family. And although Piper was in the midst of telling some hard-to-hear truths, she wasn't going to pour salt onto her friends wounds. "He was wrong."

Piper practically falls over with how quickly Hazel's arms are ripped from her own. When she glances up, it might be dark but there is practically a glowing aura around the other demigod. Her eyes topaz, hard and unyielding like her voice. "Wrong? Wrong? You want to talk about wrong? Wrong is the way everyone ostracises him just for being a child of Hades."

"It's not just because he's a child of Hades, Hazel. When has your brother ever tried to fit in?"

"Why should he have to try?"

"Because it's what normal people do. They try to fit in. They try to make friends. They try to explain to an amnesiac boy who has been missing for months that he's loved and missed by everyone. That people remember him even if he can't remember himself." Piper was seeing red. And maybe it was because she would have wanted to know. Because having memories faked and put into your head wasn't any better than having them removed. Because expectations were never the same as reality. What had been done to Percy had been done to Jason— and to her and to Leo and it wasn't fair. "He's supposed to try to act like a regular human being!"

"Like a regular human being? And how do they act, Piper? Because I'm pretty sure that regular doesn't apply to demigods."

"Of course it does. Our normal might be a little loopy, but it still exists. I get that he's your brother. I get that he brought you back from the Underworld and gave you a second chance. I get that. And I'm sure you feel like you owe him or like he can't do anything wrong… Gods knows that if our positions were reversed, I'd probably worship whoever did that for me. But that boy… There's something wrong about him. He's never been normal."

It's dangerous territory, how off script they'd trodden. But how much further afield can they go then off the beaten path in the Underworld?

"Wrong? Wrong, Pipes, honestly? Is it normal for a boy to try and throw themselves off the side of a ship after breaking up with you? And isn't it wrong that Annabeth literally couldn't breath after speaking with you? What part of it is normal that your charm speak has been hurting people, Piper?"

Her words were like a knife through her already freshly broken heart because Hazel is not wrong. It is not normal.

Tears welled in Piper's eyes and though she parted her perfectly glossed lips to speak, nothing came out. Instead they half closed, then opened again a few times. I look like a fish drowning in air on the land, some part of her thought distantly. Like that fishing trip she'd taken with grandfather on the reservation. Close your mouth unless you want to trap flies, he'd said to her at some point though she couldn't remember what a much younger version of herself had been gaping at. Perhaps one of his stories.

In the end, Piper pursed her lips into a thin line and turned away from Hazel. Her arms wrapped more tightly around herself. As tight as they could. She needed to keep her broken heart together. Keep it from spilling out of her chest. Keep the pieces from scattering in the unnatural breeze that seemed to permeate the Underworld. And more importantly, she needed to keep her mouth shut because she could feel it. Feel the way her darker nature crept up the back of her throat. Feel the way that Hazel's accusations were really just ripping off a poorly placed bandaid that had been hiding the truth; Piper knew that anything she said would hurt Hazel. Or worse, might make Hazel hurt herself.

Because it was. It was out of control. She didn't mean for it to be but how was she meant to stop herself when she didn't always realise that she had begun?

Her foot caught then on something she couldn't see through the blurry kind of blindness caused by tears stinging eyes when mixed with mascara. It sent her world turning, and her tumbling head first. As she pitched forward, her hands flew out in an attempt to catch herself, scraping along whatever broken and decaying debris had been underfoot.

Piper had seriously had enough. Letting out a cry— somewhere between a sob and a snarl— she drew Katoptris from her belt and began hacking at the ground. The string of curses she let loose were ones that would have surprised even Coach, whose language was quite colourful. Her vision blurred by tears, Piper hacked away at the ground and the offending object— whatever it might be— that had tripped her. Her scream turned into a wail and after a few minutes her arms grew tired and she left her dagger half buried in the ground, tears streaming down her face.

"He broke my heart," she mumbled even before she felt the weight of Hazel's arm across her shoulder. "Fake memories, Hazel. She implanted a history we never had and made me love him… or the idea of him. The things I wanted him to be… and maybe it's wrong to resent that he can undo it but it felt real." Kneeling beside her, the daughter of Pluto began to brush her fingers through her unkempt hair, something her father had done when she was much much younger. It reminded her of something… peace. How long had it been since she'd felt peace?

"I'm sorry. For everything that I've said. For all the things that I've done. I know— I know," she hiccuped, "It's out of control. I don't mean for it to be, Hazel. But over the past few days, my gift doesn't really feel like it's mind any more. I don't feel like myself. How much of the demigod me is actually me and how much of it is implanted by Hera? I know I'm still me it's just… everything's so confusing. And to top it all off… to top it all off, I can't even trust myself. My own judgement. My own memories. My own powers. I didn't even realise that I was doing it. And when Jason told me… when he told me that it was over… I saw red. I wouldn't feel this way if it weren't for a halfwit goddess getting all up in our business." She should stop, she knew. She'd probably get smote the next time she was any where near an open flame and hearth. "I didn't meant to hurt anyone… but what she did to us… that hurt us. And Nico not telling Percy? That hurt him. And Annabeth. And his mother. And however many other people. It isn't fair."

And just like that, the daughter of Aphrodite sagged the same as a helium balloon forgotten in the corner over a few days. But all the while, Hazel didn't stop her. Didn't quiet her. Just let her cry herself into exhaustion.

"It isn't fair." The hard edge to the other demigod's eyes was gone when Piper finally dared to glance up at the other. In their place, she saw the caring eyes of her friend. "But you know what else isn't fair? Feeling sorry for ourselves when we have a job to do. The world is counting on us, Pipes... And we won't get anything accomplished if we don't work together. So you need to stop. Until you get it under control or you get your head on straight, you need to stop. Otherwise you're going to be the one responsible when someone gets hurt."

"I know," she sniffled and wiped her nose and her eyes on the back of her arm once more. Sighing, she took another second and swallowed before nodding at Hazel. Whether she wanted to be or not, she had to be okay. They had to keep going. "Now let's go find Mrs O'Leary and get ourselves back to the Argos II before people start to think that we've been abducted by some schizo god and being held as their forever lover. That happens, you know."

And honestly, it really did.

AN: Happy Weekend!

We return to the girls after a very long break from them. What are your thoughts? I really wanted to humanise Piper (to you lovelies... but also to myself) and play around in her headspace a little bit. And get us some strong Hazel because girl's been through a lot and has a lot more to go through. I don't imagine, as kind as she is, that she'd have a lot of time for self indulgence. She also strikes me as someone who is incredibly self aware and as such would inspire that in other characters. I hope you agree!

Comments keep me motivated! I've got so many notes on future chapters and most of what I imagine will be the next one written. Just needs a bit of editing and tweaking. But who knows, it's coming to me more and more quickly. Thoughts always welcome. As are requests and questions!