Calypso

The second Hera reverts to her mortal form I start running to Jason. Piper is already there, kneeling by his side, his head resting in her lap.

Piper pours nectar onto his shoulder and the wound heals. Piper wipes away the remaining blood but tears are still poring down her face.

"He saw Hera in her godly form," Piper chokes out.

Hera stands nearby as we all crowd around Jason. "I am sorry, my child. He should have heeded my warning."

"Fix him!" Thalia demands in between sobs.

"I am sorry, I cannot-"

"Yes you can!" Leo says angrily. "You're a goddess! Work your godly magic and fix him!"

"I cannot heal him," Hera says sincerely. "His heart is still beating, but he will die in a few minutes."

"Piper, Thalia, move!" I order, pushing my way up to Jason.

Piper carefully places his head on the ground and backs away. "Wh-what are you doing?"

I drop to my knees and pull off my backpack. I rummage through it, grasping what I need.

I pinch Jason's nostrils shut and I am immediately pulled off him by Piper. "Stop! What are you doing?!"

"Leo, restrain Piper," I command.

Leo looks at me quickly before grasping Piper's arms and pulling her back. "You better know what you're doing," Leo mutters to me.

I pinch Jason's nostrils shut and pour the potion I'd recovered from Medea down his throat. Jason weakly swallows in his unconscious state and I release my hold on him.

I sit back on my knees. "Come on, Jason," I whisper.

I can't do anything but hope. There is nothing I can heal. I just have to hope that Medea truly was good at what she did.

"He is dead," Hera says, causing Piper and Thalia to sob harder.

"Shut up!" I order disrespectfully.

Hera's eyes flash dangerously. "You dare tell me to shut up?!"

I ignore Hera and grab Jason's wrist, dreading what I might feel. A large smile grows on my face when I feel Jason's steady pulse.

"He'll be fine," I announce, getting many relieved sighs. Piper kneels back beside Jason and cradles his unconscious body.

"Calypso," Leo says in awe. "How did you do that?"

Hera clears her throat. "I would also like to know how Jason is alive. I felt his heart stop for a short period of time."

"Medea," I reply. "I took the potion from her. I was only able to get the one, though."

A loud groan is heard and we all turn to Jason. His eyes flutter open. "Pipes?"

"Are you okay?" Piper asks quietly.

"Yeah."

"You owe me ten drachma."

"I'll pay you when we get back to the Argo 2."

Then, in front of everyone, Piper leans down and kisses Jason on the lips.

After about thirty seconds I clap my hands, breaking Jason and Piper apart. They are both heavily blushing.

Leo whistles loudly. "Damn, Jason. How on earth do you end up with someone like Beauty Queen?"

Jason groans. "Shut up Leo. And was that death heroic enough for you?"

Leo shrugs. "Eh. I can rate the being stabbed in the shoulder, but almost dying, because you forgot to shut your eyes? That was pathetic. And also, you didn't technically die."

"Yes, he did actually," I correct. "The potion's delayed effects saved him."

Jason sits up just to be tackled with a hug from Thalia.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Thalia whispers.

"Yeah, my throats a bit dry and you're crushing my bones, but I'll live," Jason replies.

"How am I alive?"

"Calypso," Thalia says in his ear, refusing to let go of him. "She had a potion from Medea."

Jason shoots me and grateful look and gently pulls Thalia off him. "Thank you, Calypso."

"You're welcome," I say, smiling.

I'm suddenly caught up in a giant hug from Thalia. "Thank you so much for saving him," she whispers tightly.

"You're welcome," I repeat.

"Hera," I say, turning to said goddess. "Can you get us to Camp Half-Blood?"

Hera nods. "Of course, Calypso."

"Thalia, you and Phoebe should go back to Artemis and ask her to bring you to Camp Half-Blood too. We're going to need the Hunters for when we get to Camp Jupiter," I order.

Thalia nods and she and Phoebe sprint into the doorway that we had come from before.

"Alright. Jason, Piper get up. We've got to go," I say.

We all join hands and Hera flashes us away.

We reappear in the Big House in the middle of a councillor's meeting. Many sets of eyes stare at us in shock.

"Hey," Leo says casually. "We're still alive."

Chiron is the first to notice Hera and bow from in his wheelchair. "Lady Hera," he says respectfully and the other demigods follow suit.

Hera waves for them to rise then turns to us. "This is where I must leave you. Goodbye and good luck."

"Finally, she's gone. Can you believe her?" Leo says when Hera flashes away.

"Leo!" Piper scolds. "Don't talk about a goddess that way!"

"Yeah," I say sarcastically. "It's not her fault she killed Jason, at all!"

I ignore all the gasps at my words, "Chiron, why is there a meeting?"

"There is an army of two thousand monsters marching towards us at this very second. They are lead by the Titan Krios," Chiron says gravely. "We need to evacuate the campers."

I sit down in a chair. "Why did Artemis not inform me of this?"

"We have only just found out," Chiron answers. "They have somehow clouded themselves from us up until now."

"Why do you need to evacuate the campers? What are your numbers?"

"We have eighty demigods above the age of twelve," Chiron says proudly.

I nod thoughtfully. "Your camp is protected by Thalia's tree, right? A dome?"

Chiron nods in confirmation.

"Then why not trap the monsters inside?" I say slowly, unsure.

Chiron furrows his eyebrows. "I suppose that could work. But then what would become of the monsters?"

"We'll need fire, Greek Fire. And how many archers do you have? And-"

"Hold up," says a girl with stringy brown hair. "We don't even know who the Hades you are, and you're already planning on torching our camp!"

"I'm Calypso," I say breezily. "Chiron, how many archers?"

"Fifteen, at the most," Chiron replies, amused with my planning.

"Your lake. Perhaps we can rig some sort of bomb inside it? We can get the children of Hephaestus to electrify the monsters that come in contact with the water."

"That will still leave at least one thousand monsters," Chiron frowns.

"Well?" I look around the table, at the campers. "Anyone got any ideas?"

Suddenly everyone starts talking.

-"Fighting units-"

-"Cannons-"

-"Flash grenades-"

-"We stole some of-"

-"Ares Cabin's landmines-"

-"What?! How do you steal live landmines?!"

-"The woods-"

-"Hydra arrows-"

I lean back in my chair, satisfied.

"Wow," Leo says, awed. "You're really good at this."

I laugh. "I just got them started."

An hour later all the cabin councillors are standing on top of Half-Blood Hill. The rest of the campers are hidden in the woods just outside the border.

We watch the army in the distance approach steadily. I've sorted everyone into small fighting units after I was introduced to everyone and given summaries of their abilities. Mostly they are by their cabins but a few groups are different. The Hunters are split into two, with Thalia leading one half and Phoebe leading the other.

I turn the Thalia. "Let down the barrier."

She nods and the wind from outside hits us hard, blowing my hair out of my face. For obvious reasons, Phoebe and Clarrise are with the rest of the campers in the woods, along with Chiron. I am the unspoken leader of this battle.

Jason stares at the Titan leading the monsters with a slightly annoyed look. "He just couldn't stay dead, could he?"

Piper laughs. "Think you can fix that for us?"

"Absolutely."

When the army reaches us, instead of the usual surrender or else speech, they just charge at us.

"Go!" I yell.

We all turn and run, probably looking like complete cowards.

"What happened to their 'join us and you will we rewarded greatly' speech?" Leo pants.

Jason, Piper and I don't answer, instead picking up our pace. Monsters howl from behind us and I glance back quickly. My eyes lock with Krios' and I glare back furiously.

"Thalia!" I shout when we are out of the border's normal range.

The border goes up and the monsters behind us smack into it. We disappear into the trees.

"Alright," I say. "Let's get back to the hill."

Soon all the campers are just behind the hill overlooking the camp. I sneak up so I can just see past the hill and at the monsters.

They don't seem to know what to do. Thankfully, they aren't torching the camp or anything. Krios is barking out orders but the monsters seem unable to follow them.

I turn my head back to the councillors. "The lake!"

I cover my ears and watch as the lake water blows halfway to the border then falls back to the ground, spattering the monsters. We had strategically blown the majority of the water in the direction of a large sunken area in the ground. It now creates a gigantic puddle with at least three hundred monsters. I nod to Jake and he sets off the trap. All the monsters in the sunken area are electrocuted and soon turn to dust.

The army is sent into confusion, the monsters are sent into a panic and against Krios' obvious orders, run to the camp borders and attempt to escape. A dozen monsters are trampled and I hunch down from my spot right by the border.

As soon as the monsters run into the border, landmines set up around the edges of the camp barrier go off in a series of explosions, killing several hundred monsters. The border protects our side and the ground in the camp can be fixed easily by Demeter cabin.

Krios barks a few orders and the monsters crowd back to the middle of the camp, but you can tell that Krios too, is nervous.

I creep back down to the councillors.

"Change of plan," I whisper, turning to Thalia. "Can you make the border partially solid to us?"

Thalia frowns. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, can you make it so I can stand on the border, but I can still shoot arrows and drop things down?"

"I think so, but I'll need to be able to see you."

"That's fine," I say. "You can fly, right?"

Thalia pales. "No," she manages.

I look at her strangely for a second. "Okay. Jason can fly you up first then bring me up."

"I'm beginning to feel like your private taxi," Jason grumbles.

I look at him with wide eyes. "You feel like a taxi? How do you think I feel after having to bring three people halfway across the world?"

Jason grumbles a bit before grabbing Thalia and bringing her to the top of the invisible dome.

I turn to Jake. "Have you got the Greek fire bombs?"

Jake hands them to me and I carefully place them in my backpack.

After Jason brings me up, I send him back to the councillors.

I look at a steadily paling Thalia. "What's the matter, Thalia?"

Thalia's eyes stay transfixed on the drop below us and something snaps into place. "Are you afraid of heights?"

Thalia nods slowly, "I know it's stupid because I'm a daughter of Zeus, but I can't help it." Thalia pauses, like she's considering whether or not to go on. "My mother was always drunk. She didn't care about Jason and I and I had to look after him. After Jason went missing, I ran away. I came back a week later to collect something, just to find out that she was dead. She got really drunk and somehow ended up near a cliff."

"Oh," I say quietly, knowing how it ended. "Thalia, that's in the past. You've got to live in the present. And right now, there are monsters inside your camp. And you're going to help me get rid of them."

-SAW