Calypso

I wake up in Piper and I's tent, alone. There is a lingering scent of fire in the room. I smile, Leo must have been here often.

I sit up and stretch. It's deadly quiet outside, no wind, no birds, no voices. I start to worry until Leo walks in. He rushes up to me when he notices I'm awake, "Thanks the gods you're awake! You had us scared to death! You've been out for two days! Are you alright? I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were so tired!-"

"Wait," I say holding up my hand. "I've been unconscious for two days?!"

Leo nods energetically and I push my sleeping bag off me. I stand up, brushing away Leo's helping hand. "We've got to get moving now! If we don't get to Hera in two more days, she's as good as dead!"

I hastily walk out the tent, getting Piper and Jason's attention. They rush over to me and Piper envelopes me in a hug. "Are you okay?"

I gently push her off me and she looks at me with a hurt look. "Piper, we've got to get going. I've wasted enough time."

I glance up at the sun. It's around midday. I move towards the tent to collect it. Jason grabs my shoulder and I turn around impatiently. "What?!"

"You realise you almost died, right?" Jason says.

"Well I'm fine now," I say annoyedly, shrugging off his hand and walking back towards my tent.

"Calypso, you were floating on the line between life and death. You used too much of your power. You're in no shape to be teleporting now!"

I grab my necklace, turning around. I hold my knife to Jason's throat. "You have got no right to tell me what to do! If we don't save Hera, we have failed our quest. If our quest fails, the Greeks won't trust the Romans and we would be the cause of the downfall of the gods. Do you want that to happen?!"

I storm over to the tent and replace my knife on my necklace. I grab my bag from beside my sleeping bag and stalk outside. I mutter something in Ancient Greek and the tent collapses into itself. I stuff the piece of fabric in my bag and do the same to the other tent.

"Grab hands," I order. They join hands and Jason offers me his hand. I ignore him and grab Leo's hand instead.

In a blur of light we reappear in a sewer. Darkness clouding my vision, I collapse towards the gritty looking cement.

I wake up as the sun starts to set, getting rid of the small amount of light in the sewer. It's raining outside but the rainwater gets dropped in a wide crack in the ground and flows under the wall. I look around the tunnel. Not a sewer, a better word to describe it would be corridor. Despite its appearance of a sewer, it is surprisingly clean and free of waste.

I smirk at Jason, Piper and Leo's sleeping figures. I pick up Leo's bag from beside him and drop it on his head. He groans and curls up into himself, clutching at his head. "Caaal," he moans. "That huurrt!"

Using my powers as a sorceress, I take control of some rainwater and flick it at Leo's face. "Get up, you big baby," I order.

Leo merely groans again and cuddles his backpack to his chest. I roll my eyes and wave my hand in his direction. In an instant, Leo is hanging upside down in the air, his bag left on the floor and his head an arms length from the floor. Leo flails his arms around wildly, throughly woken up.

"Put me down!" Leo demands. It's hard to take him seriously from his current position.

"Sorry," I laugh, "Did you say something? I can't hear you down there."

I laugh again before waving my hand a second time. Leo has just enough time to cover his head before he gets even more brain damage. "Good thing you covered that hollow head of yours," I comment playfully. "You might have done damage to your nonexistent brain."

Leo sits up, glaring at me but his ever-present grin is already breaking through. "I have a brain! I just-"

"Don't use it much," I supply, smirking.

Leo widens his eyes in indignation, "No! It just- um, got took out for polishing!"

My smirk widens. "Because it wasn't working before!"

A masculine cough sounds from behind us. I turn and smile at Piper and Jason. "Sorry, did Leo wake you? He can be rather insensitive, can't he?"

Leo protests from behind me. "You're the one who tried to damage my beautiful face!"

Without turning, I kick him in the shins. "I would've been doing the world a favour," I mutter back to him.

Piper snickers behind her hand, while Jason suppresses a smirk. "C'mon guys," Jason says. "We should check out what's down here."

I nod my head and my eyes briefly drift to Jason and Piper's interlocked fingers. I smirk briefly at Piper, making her blush. "Yeah," I say. "We shouldn't have ended up in a sewer. Something interfered with my magic. I'm surprised nothing has attacked us yet. Which can only mean one thing..." I trail off.

"They're waiting for us," Jason finishes, creating an deafening silence.

"What do you mean by waiting for us?" Leo pipes up. "Like shower with gifts, waiting for us?"

We all ignore Leo. Jason flips his coin in the air and catches it as a sword. "Ready?"

I summon my knives. "Let's go find what's trying to kill us."

Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer Level

Furnishings and Café M: 1

Women's Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2

Men's Wear and Weaponry: 3

Cosmetics, Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4

I stare at the directions sign in front of us. "Are all sewers this welcoming?"

Leo shudders and shakes his head. "No, definitely not."

I raise an eyebrow at him and he shrugs it off. "Hey. I ran away seven times, I've slept in some weird places, okay?"

Seven times? This is news to me. "Why? What happened to your mother?" I ask curiously.

Leo's eyes darken and he mutters, "Another time." He quickly changes subject, "What do you reckon the kennels are for?"

"I don't know," Jason answers, scratching his head. "So, shall we stick to this level?"

Leo grins. "I dunno, man. I was all for Woman's Fashion, but if you insist, I guess we'll stay on this level."

I stare at the glass doors, wishing they were the kind that you could see through. "Before we go," I say turning to Piper. I place two fingers on her forehead and her multicoloured eyes become more detailed and sharper.

"What did you do?" Piper asks. "And why do I feel stronger?"

"I restored what is rightfully yours. It seems that at birth, Aphrodite placed a block on your powers in order to dampen your aura."

Piper looks at me quizzically. "My aura?"

I sigh. "Every demigod or demi-titan has one. Your aura depends on how strong you are. If you are strong, your aura will be more potent, but if you are weak, your aura will be the same. The stronger the aura you have, the more monsters that will come after you. My aura is very strong but I have masked it. Your mother did it to protect you. You really must be her favourite child."

Piper smiles distantly. "Why'd you only restore it now?" Her voice wasn't one of hostility, it was of sincere curiosity.

"I hadn't noticed until a few days ago. I get the feeling you might need it now."

"Thank you-" Piper says but the rest of what she was saying is lost when the doors start to open.

Making a split second decision, I turn myself invisible. Strangely when I turn invisible, I feel a rush of power. Like instead of draining me, the invisibility has done the opposite. I don't have time to ponder this further as a beautiful woman steps out from the doors and stops short in obvious (well to me) fake surprise. "Well, I didn't expect to have any customers!"

The woman is in her forties or fifties, she looks like a retired supermodel. She wears a dazzling black dress that goes down to her ankles. She has sleek and shiny, long black hair, styled over her shoulder. The most, well, only unsettling thing about her is her eyes. They're a clouded grey, not stormy like Annabeth's but swirling, swirling with magic.

While examining her, I seem to have missed the rest of her conversation with Piper, Jason and Leo. The woman walks back through the doors and Jason and Leo follow her blindly, their eyes glazed over. Piper follows hesitantly after them but whispers something first. "Try and find out her weakness and how to fix the boys. I trust you, Calypso."

I slip through the closing doors before stopping right past them. I haven't been feeling the usual fatigue from using my powers. I examine my aura in my mind before noticing something. Aside from the normal fiery edge around my aura, it also had a silvery glow about it. Artemis blessed me! That is the only explanation. It makes sense that I am not feeling the usual power drainage as Artemis has made me stronger than before. Which also means- oh gods. Cursing silently in both Latin and Greek, I quickly put a thick mist of magic over my aura, dampening its obviousness.

Not quick enough though, the woman turns and gives my general area a suspicious look. She then smiles brightly at Jason and Leo, ignoring Piper. "I am the Princess of Colchis. You may call me Your Highness."

That alone gave away much. Colchis was an ancient religion from mythology. That was the first Jason's goal for his quest. But that place doesn't exist anymore. And neither does its princess. It's sorceress. Medea.

Piper trails at the back of the group and I come up beside her. Just as I'm about to whisper in her ear, she says something barely audible herself. "Medea," she hisses under her breath.

I'm honestly impressed with Piper's intelligence. Not many demigods would be able to figure that out, and especially Aphrodite kids. It makes sense that Piper is Aphrodite's favourite.

"Nice work," I whisper in Piper's ear, making her jump and causing Medea to look at her in suspicion. "She's a sorceress, so an outright attack should be the way to go. She'll be no good in close combat. Use your charmspeak to counteract her's. Try and snap Jason out of it, I'll handle Leo."

Piper smiles at Medea until she turns her focus back to Leo and Jason. "How are you gonna handle Leo?" Piper hisses from the corner of her mouth.

"Knowing you, it'll be some way violently," she continues quietly.

"You read my mind," I murmur lowly.

I slip away from her and she doesn't make any attempt to talk to me again.

"So, Your Highness, you're new to America?" Jason asks without a note of suspicion in his voice.

"I am.. new," Medea says agreeably.

Piper snorts quietly. "Yeah, centuries old, 'new'."

Medea studies Piper's face with irritation before her face changes back its usual fake, yet beautiful smile. "May I know your names, children?"

"No-" Piper starts to say before Jason cuts her off. "I'm Jason, this is Piper, and this is Leo." At least the magic seems to have made him forget about me being here as well.

The look on Medea's face when she hears Jason's name is fleeting. But I have sharp eyes and the memory burns itself into my brain. Medea's skin literally glows, her face contorting into a horrible scowl. The kind of scowl that would give children nightmares. Her eyes burn with anger and you can practically see her skull beneath her skin. Then the look vanishes and she looks like a normal woman with a nice smile.

"Come children," she says cordially. "Let's go shopping."

-SAW