"It's okay if you don't like it," She says nervously. Watching Nico approach Cabin 13 with an unreadable expression, Julie shifts her weight between both feet and twists her hands into the skirt of her orange sundress. "Annabeth let me take over designing it since you weren't here...They originally had you sleeping in, like, a Party City styrofoam coffin, so...Hopefully, it's at least better than that. Let me know if there's anything you want changed."
Thank gods, Julie managed to get a peek at the Athena cabin's plans before they actually started building it. She thinks she managed at least a decent job at fixing up what they had drawn.
At Juliette's demand, a structure equal in size to the massive stature of the Poseidon cabin was raised up on 13's designated plot of land. It's constructed with black marble, but mimics the jagged edges of a natural rock formation like it was just pulled right out of the ground. Two massive columns hold up the entryway, which is gilded and inlayed with polished animal bones. Flanking the burnt mahogany doors are silver Greek fire lanterns carved with images of each of the Furies (Julie paid Nyssa all of her desserts for a month to get those done). Nico approaches slowly, reaching out a hand to press his finger against a thorn on one of the blood red rose vines weaving tightly around the main columns.
"Why?" He asks.
Julie cringes. "I really don't know. For some reason, they had vampires on the brain, I guess."
Nico turns around to look at her with a bemused expression. Juliette blinks.
"Oh, you mean why design it?" She shrugs. "Well, you obviously need a place to sleep here. And, after everything Hades did for us during the war, his cabin should be something special. I wanted to make sure it didn't end up ugly. Which, if it had stayed in Malcom's hands, it would've."
He looks at her a bit longer, a sort of smirk pulling up one corner of his mouth. Then, he huffs a sound that almost sounds like a laugh and shakes his head. "It's fine."
To an unpracticed ear, that might not sound like high praise. But, there's a pleased gleam in Nico's eyes that turns the simple response into a five star review. Julie beams at him, chest swelling with pride, and runs up to snag his sleeve and pull him towards the door. "Just wait! Come look inside!"
He lets her drag him through to the interior, but stops in his tracks the moment they cross the threshold.
Once it senses the presence of a son of Hades, the cabin welcomes him home. Upon Nico's entry, smaller versions of the Greek fire lanterns light themselves on the bedposts of four sets of full sized bunk beds. Each bunk is comfortably furnished in rich jewel tones, the emeralds and sapphires inlayed into the frames...hell, into the ceiling glowing faintly to cast multicolored light across the bedclothes. Julie watches Nico with large, hopeful eyes as he steps forward to take in the celestial bronze alters to Hades and Persephone that she ordered placed in the center of the room. Atop each, she's already laid small baskets of freshly picked strawberries from her visit this morning.
"Hades sent up most of these gems for construction," She explains. "They kept just appearing in the middle of the night. We'd find them in piles the next morning ready to go, so I wanted to make sure to thank him once the alter got finished."
Nico runs a hand along the side of the bronze tribute to his father, tracing the hand drawn carvings of Hades' palace with a bewildered expression. "Did you do these?" He asks.
Julie nods sheepishly, wringing her hands. She sits herself down on one of the beds. "So..." A nod to their surroundings. "Do you like it?"
Nico snorts.
Is that a good or bad thing?
"It's insane."
...She still can't tell.
Nico straightens back up and crosses his arms, the sword on his belt glowing purple in the dim light of the cabin. "What's even the point of all this?" He asks.
Juliette frowns at him. What's the point? "Um, to sleep in? Genius?"
He rolls his eyes. "You think the others here want that?"
Are they really doing this again?
Julie's temper flares. She clenches her fists into the perfectly pressed duvet and tries to keep from stomping her foot at him. "I want that. And, if you'd give people a chance to actually get to know you, you'd be more than just the 'Hades kid.' They'd want you here too."
"No, they wouldn't."
Frustrated, Julie lets out a scoff of defeat and throws her hands into the air. "Whatever. Never mind. It's here if you want it. I just figured I'd show you," She snaps. Julie storms back to the door without looking at her friend, feeling a little embarrassed at the severity of the stinging feeling in her heart.
If he doesn't like it, he doesn't like it. Oh, well. At least there's something here.
Swallowing back her wounded pride, Julie snags the skull topped door handle to escape into the evening air. Guess she'll be taking Drew up on dinner tonight after all.
She leaves the son of Hades standing in the middle of Cabin 13, glaring down at the N.A., B.A. scratched lovingly into the base of the hand carved alter.
The first few minutes of the battle, Julie feels like she can honestly say she and Piper are carrying the team.
Frank takes an arrow to the arm, preventing him from transforming alongside her and dashing her hopes of having a double dragon tag team battle. Nico and Jason are spending most of their energy trying to get control of their own army while simultaneously avoiding ending up skewered by the barrage of missiles coming at them from all sides.
Piper's being helpful. She's shouting suggestions at monsters that get too close to go for a fun little skydive off the edge of the chasm in the room. Meanwhile, Juliette is making deadly swipes with her wings and tail to knock enemies away from her friends while they're distracted. She's not really sure what is taking the guys so long in getting their troops under control (aren't they meant to be, like, soldiers?), but she's already taken two arrows in the joint of her left wing, and if that stupid cyclops hits her with a wooden bench one more time, Julie's gonna start spitting acid like a homicidal water fountain.
Surprisingly, it's Frank's voice that rings out above the clatter of combat to finally get their forces into position. "Legion, agmen formate!"
Julie has no idea what that means, but the skeletons apparently do. Very, very quickly, Julie and Piper are no longer carrying.
With an earsplitting battle cry, swarms of the undead rush the battlefield like lava floods a valley, leaving pure destruction in their wake. The monsters meet them with equal ferocity, and the chamber is rapidly filled by the remains of hundreds of slain monsters and spirits of past Roman soldiers. Julie keeps fighting, powering through the pain in her wing as she brings her claws down on the biggest enemies she can find. She's locked in combat with an axe-wielding cyclops when she hears Jason shout Nico's name.
Julie clamps her jaws down on the cyclops' one-eyed head and crunches him into dust. Then, she whirls around to take in the situation.
Nico's still summoning reinforcements, and he's looking paler by the second. His dark eyes are bloodshot and bruised, his complexion looking more and more like wet clay with every zombie he raises from the ground. Their enemies are taking notice as well.
The warning Jason had shouted was to alert Nico of the wave of telkhines smashing their way through the skeletons protecting him, and there's only a handful left in between them now.
Good thing she's got wings, right?
Julie takes a running leap into the air and crashes down into the telkhines. They knock into each other like bowling pins, and Juliette sweeps out a wing to dust them into the chasm and out of sight. She vaguely hears Nico shout out a quick "thanks!" before taking back off to help Piper fend off the squabbling group of empousai at the head of the enemy forces.
The battle ends quickly.
Mostly because Frank Zhang is an absolute machine.
"Frank" and "terrifying" are not usually words Julie puts together, but watching him mow down tens of monsters with a single swipe of his sword, the only experience Julie can possibly think to compare it to is Percy's fight with Hades when he was fresh from the River Styx. Once the opposition starts to dwindle, Julie ends up just landing next to Jason and transforming back so they can stand wide-eyed beside each other as they watch their friend take on three cyclops at once without breaking a sweat.
Jason lets out a breathless laugh as Frank stabs his gladius down into one of his opponents and yells out orders in Latin to the nearest undead soldiers. "Leo's lucky to be alive, isn't he?"
Julie remembers to close her jaw. She leans against Jason's arm as the final monsters turn to dust on the battlefield. "Uh...Yeah. Good thing Hazel found herself a gentleman."
"You guys alright?" Frank booms, knee deep in monster dust and somehow still doe-eyed.
Julie raises an awed thumbs up. Jason laughs and gestures at him with his sword. "Frank...you're on fire."
"Hmm?" The son of Mars looks down on himself and jolts in surprise to see the orange aura radiating from his skin. "Oh."
"You also...have an arrow sticking out of your arm," Nico points out, also looking wary but intrigued.
Frank looks down at the arrow and shrugs. "I know," He breaks the shaft off at the head and pulls the tail end out without flinching. "I'll be fine."
Julie sputters as he moves on like nothing happened and downs a tiny cube of ambrosia from Piper like it's a tictac.
Did he-Is he-That was-
"That was the most metal thing I've ever seen," She mumbles. With a wicked grin, she looks down at her own arrow wound and reaches for it. Jason's eyes widen.
"Wait, no, Rosa-!"
Snap.
"OWWWW!"
Juliette Aster is many things: daughter, sister, lover, friend, Demigod of Greece, and (self proclaimed) Champion of Hades.
She's also an amateur bloodhound.
"What is she doing?" Frank asks nervously as Julie paces the circumference of the chamber, enormous leathery eyes shut tight and gaping nostrils flaring with every inhale.
"She has a thing," Nico tells him.
Frank blinks and turns to question the boy. "A thing?"
"A thing," Piper agrees. She looks at Frank in annoyance. "Now, ssshh! You'll mess up her concentration."
Frank still looks bewildered, but Jason steps up to Juliette's gargantuan form eagerly. "Do you sense them?"
That's the thing. Yes. But, also no.
She can sense...one of them.
She can't wait any longer. Julie already feels like a terrible friend for hesitating to begin with. She jerks her head at the group and turns to gallop down the leftmost pathway. Her friends follow quickly after, weapons drawn, and Julie tries to push down the complicated guilt stirring in her belly.
The single, gently humming white aura up ahead of them is singing to her just one thing. Annabeth.
There's no question about it. No one else on this planet could make Julie think of algebra class and sipping vanilla lattes when she's this far up shit creek. At the other end of this beautiful, calming trail of consciousness is Annabeth Chase.
But, Juliette can't smell sunscreen. She never thought a sentence like that could strike such terror into her heart.
The path ahead of them twists and turns, angling sharply one way before suddenly dropping off into a steep decline that has Julie's claws slipping on the smooth stone floor. The path they have to take is probably only about five minutes long, but it feels like they're trapped down there for decades, trying desperately to locate the source of the panicked yelling and shouts of pain echoing off the obsidian tiles of the corridor.
She picks up speed, and so do the pounding sets of footsteps grouped up behind her. Julie can hear Frank's breathing becoming more frantic by the second. Nico's anxiety is pricking Julie's scales like a million tiny acupuncture needles. Piper is the regular amount of scared, but Jason? Julie's not sure if she's just being overwhelmed by everyone else's feelings or what, but, he feels like a blank slate.
She tries to use everybody's battle adrenaline to charge up her reserves so that she can go even faster. It seems to be paying off.
Until they hit the dead end.
Julie has no idea if wyverns lay eggs, but she feels like her heart just drops out of her butt. Desperately, she rakes her talons against the stone wall like she can tear it apart by the middle. Frank and Nico both press their ears against the stones urgently.
"I don't understand," Nico says anxiously. "I can hear them. They're right here!"
"It's like something put this wall here," Frank agrees. He rears back and bangs a fist against the stones. "HAZEL! LEO!"
Maybe Frank is magic. Maybe a god finally decides to do something useful.
As if he'd said "open sesame," a purple archway glows across the stones in front of them. Julie's friends all line up side by side with their weapons drawn as the light shines brighter. Brighter. Brighter.
Then, it dims, and they're standing in a brand new entryway to a dark, cathedral-like chamber. There are four familiar demigods splayed out on the floor at the feet of a witch and a giant.
Before anyone speaks a word, both of the enemies are impaled from all sides by three swords, a dagger, and the fangs of a cobra.
The only sounds after that are Hecate's laughter and the crumbling of monster dust.
Julie shrinks back into herself as the goddess disappears into mist. Jason's at her side in an instant, hand bracing her back. "You alright?"
"I'm good," She nods, breathing a bit heavily. "You? Are you hurt?"
He's a little bloodied up for sure. There's a slash across his collarbone and a bruise blooming around his right eye, but nothing looks too serious. He shakes his head and pecks her on the forehead. "I'm fine. Percy and Annabeth look rough, though. You should go check on them."
Percy and Annabeth.
Right. Yeah. Okay, yeah.
Juliette nods and pulls out of his arms. She scans the group, and...there they are.
The two of them are on their knees, leaning so heavily against one another that Julie's pretty sure they aren't capable of standing on their own. Annabeth's straw colored hair is matted and tied back with a strip of torn denim. Her jeans became cutoffs at some point during her time in Tartarus, and there's a long, pale scar running from beneath her stained converse to her calf that was probably caused by the broken ankle she got in Rome. Her face is sunken, her eyes streaked with bright red veins and puffy like she's been crying for weeks. But, she's got all of her fingers when she reaches out towards Julie and lets out a relieved, giddy sob.
She's wrapped in Juliette's arms in a heartbeat.
"You made it," Julie laughs, squeezing the girl around the shoulders.
Annabeth is trembling. She looks up fearfully when Percy slips away from her side to be crushed into a bear hug by Jason and, a moment later, Frank. Julie cups Annabeth's face in her hands and turns her back to look at her instead.
"You're safe," She assures, tucking the older girl's hair behind her ears. "You both are. You made it."
"We made it," Annabeth repeats, fogged over gray eyes studying Julie's face in disbelief. "We're out."
"You're out." Julie grins. She lets herself smile, another burst of emotional laughter escaping her as she leans forward to plant a kiss on Annabeth's head that's so loud it manages to pull a quiet snort out of her. "Gods, I'm so proud of you guys! You're incredible!"
"We wouldn't have made it without this," Percy says behind her.
Something cold in Julie's chest makes her hesitate. She looks back at her brother, though.
He's covered in blood. Head to toe. Julie's pretty sure it's his own. That really makes it worse. There are open gashes on his shoulder that look like talon marks. There's soiled bandages wrapped loosely around what Julie can assume to be more partially healed wounds on his legs and upper back. His shirt is torn from hem to armpit on his right side, and all the skin that's visible to her across his chest is mottled black and purple. There's a scabbed over empousa bite on his neck. There are drakon venom burns on his forearms.
Percy has a new scar stretching from his nose to his left ear. It puckers a bit when he gives her a smile and holds out a burnt, bloodstained, purple-and-smiley-face backpack.
"Remind me to buy you a new one when we get home. This one got a little dirty while we were running for our lives," He jokes.
Julie forgets to laugh. She continues to study him.
There's something different.
Something she doesn't like.
When she doesn't reach out to accept the backpack from him, Percy clears his throat awkwardly and hands it to Jason instead.
The chamber rumbles, then. Debris and dust falls from the domed ceiling, and Julie starts getting flashbacks to the cave in from, like, literally fifteen minutes ago. She groans and lifts Annabeth to her feet by her armpits. "Up we go."
"We have to get out of here," Jason states. He looks to Julie. "Do you know which way-?"
She pales and shakes her head. "Frank?"
"I'm out of godly favors today, I think," He says anxiously.
The rooms rumbles again. Annabeth loses her balance and ends up leaning entirely onto Julie, who struggles to keep them both upright as flecks of tile start pelting the tops of their heads. "Any ideas?!" Julie asks frantically.
"We'll have to shadowtravel," decides Hazel.
Nico winces, and it draws Julie's attention over to him. He looks...rough. Like he's been crying, maybe. She feels guilty for forgetting to check on him. "Hazel, I can barely manage that with only myself. With eight more people-"
"I'll help you," Hazel declares.
Gods, that girl has changed so much. The pride Julie feels for her starts glowing in Nico's eyes too as he holds a hand out to his sister. "Everyone, grab hands!"
Frank takes Hazel's other side.
Jason takes his.
Then, Piper and Leo.
Then, Julie.
Then, Annabeth, Percy, and Nico.
They stand together as the building crumbles around them and look into the eyes of the people they've agreed to fight with. If necessary, to die with. There was a time when Juliette had no family to speak of. Now, she would take a spear to the heart for anyone in this circle and smile as she rode down to Hades in their place.
There's a tugging feeling and a flash of frigidity, and then they're standing on a grassy hillside as the rising sun lights the world around them orange.
It's a beautiful moment. Then, 50% of the circle falls to the grass unconscious.
"We could just cut it-"
"Um, no?" Julie snaps, tugging Annabeth's head backwards to look at her upside down. She puts her hands on her hips, hairbrush clutched tightly. "I am not letting you cut your hair. It's beautiful. I'm going to untangle it. Don't underestimate me."
The older girl huffs a laugh and rolls her eyes fondly, hand inching across the grass to intertwine with Percy's. Julie avoids looking over at him, humming softly to herself as she goes back to fighting with the knots in Annabeth's curls.
"So, anyway, I gave him Drew's name instead of mine, and I don't think she's happy. I might need to stay in someone else's cabin once we get home. I'm a little scared if I sleep in Cabin 10, I'll wake up with permanent clown makeup, or something."
"She'll probably shave off your eyebrows," Piper says with a smirk.
Juliette freezes in terror.
"So, praetor, huh?" Percy smirks over at Frank.
The younger boy turns pink.
"Oh yeah," Jason agrees with a grin. "He was incredible. I resigned from office and gave him a field promotion mid battle. I think it's a ruling that should stand. Unless you want to contest it?" He raises an eyebrow at Percy.
Percy raises his hands and shakes his head. "No argument here."
"Praetor?!" Hazel exclaims in surprise. Frank looks at her with wide eyes, almost like he's expecting her to scold him for it. Instead, she leaps up for a celebratory kiss. "That's amazing!"
Julie turns to look at her boyfriend as the group all clap Frank on the back in congratulations. He's watching the exchanges with a proud smile, but there's something forced about the set of his jaw. She catches his eye, and he seems pleased to find her staring at him. He winks, and Julie's stomach swoops. She focuses back on Annabeth's hair before anyone can notice her burning cheeks.
"But, you guys..." Frank sounds nervous. That makes Julie wince at what inevitable question must be coming. "Tartarus must be the real story. How did you guys-"
"Why don't we talk about that when we're not all bleeding and sleep deprived?" Julie suggests sharply.
Frank flushes, clamping his mouth shut so fast that Julie feels a bit guilty for being snippy with him. The way Annabeth's shoulders relax when the group nods in agreement helps, though. The older girl reaches back a hand and squeezes Julie's knee gratefully.
"I think our ride is coming, anyway," Annabeth says, nodding at the horizon.
The Argo II peeks from behind some clouds and soars in their direction, Festus clicking and clacking happily at the sight of them. Leo leaps to his feet and opens his arms like the dragon isn't two tons and wouldn't crush him on contact if he tried leaping in for a hug. "MY BABY! THAT'S MY BOY!"
Festus whines like a dog in response, and the group all laughs.
"Took you cupcakes long enough!" Hedge calls down from the prow. He leans over the edge of the ship and hangs on to the bill of his ballcap to keep from losing it. "You sure kept your visitor waiting!"
Visitor?
Julie scrunches her eyebrows in confusion. She lets go of Annabeth's matted ponytail to shield her eyes against the sun and squints up at the ship as another shape steps up to stand beside their chaperone.
A girl is standing in...are those Jason's spare clothes? She's straight backed with her hands folded behind her, a golden sword at her hip and long dark hair billowing around the beautiful, intense, sharp, and angled features of a Roman weapon of war.
Julie nearly chokes. A tingly ball of anxiety gets stuck in her throat.
Reyna Avila RamÃrez-Arellano is standing on the prow of the Argo II. And she looks pissed.
The entire picnic/meeting, Julie has no idea what to do with her hands. Hades, she doesn't even know who to sit with.
She wants to sit with Jason, but the long look up and down that Reyna gave her when he kissed Julie on the cheek before helping Frank go get food actually almost made her poop herself in fright. So, she's keeping her distance until the two of them have what is sure to be a very uncomfortable, but necessary heart to heart.
The obvious second choice in lunch partners would probably be her dear beloved older brother who just escaped certain death in the previously claimed inescapable realm of monsters. Being around Percy feels...weird, though. There's something. Something different. That's to be expected, but it's not like it was with Nico. Julie can't explain it, but there's something in Percy that she's never experienced before. Something that's making him...hard to recognize. It makes her queasy.
Maybe it wouldn't phase her so much if she wasn't the only person who seems to be noticing it.
So, Julie decides to sit with Nico. That ends up being a strange choice too. He barely even glances at her, fractured gaze locked to the Athena Parthenos as Leo has Festus lower it slowly onto the hillside beside them.
Julie scoots a bit closer and nudges him with her elbow. "How are you feeling?" She asks.
He shrugs and lifts an arm to brandish the bandaids Hazel put on him already. Julie nods.
"Good, good..." She purses her lips as she watches Jason fly down from the ship with a cardboard box of snacks in his hands. A giant eagle soars down behind him, a full grocery sack clutched in its beak, and she watches Reyna's narrowed eyes follow Jason's every movement. Julie cringes when her boyfriend beams over at her and Nico, making his former comrade scowl. Trying to be supportive, Julie forces a smile on and waves back at him, but leans over to Nico worriedly. "You know Reyna. Is she going to stab me?"
He shrugs. "Grace'll keep her from going too deep."
Julie reels back and looks at him in shock. She stutters. "Did you just make a joke?"
Nico's lips twitch, but he looks at her seriously. "No."
Aaaand, the nausea is back. Julie thinks she's going to pass on the PB&Js.
"Reyna," Annabeth's voice calls. She waves the praetor over to where the boys are setting up lunch. "Come join us."
No, no, no. Oh gods, why does Annabeth hate her?
"Alright," Reyna says stiffly. Her back stays perfectly straight - is she even human? - as she walks. Her dark hair lays in perfect ringlets down her back. Even scratched up and bandaged, her skin is honey brown and perfectly smooth under the afternoon sun. She's just perfect. Julie almost squeaks in terror as she kneels down onto the grass directly between her and Annabeth.
There's a long, awkward silence. Gods, this group really doesn't appreciate the chatterboxes amongst them quite enough, do they? Now, Leo's busy repairing armor on the ship, Juliette's too terrified to move, and Percy hasn't eaten more than (what he claims to be fairly delectable) drakon soup in weeks, so he's too busy inhaling Oreos and crying in happiness to contribute more than open mouthed chewing.
"So," Julie finally forces out. Every eye around the circle turns to her, and she swallows uncomfortably. "How, um, did you find us, Reyna?"
The girl raises a perfect, stern eyebrow, chewing her sandwich like it's made of broken glass. She flicks her eyes down Juliette's form again, focus lingering on the jacket Jason lent her that's tied around her waist, and Julie only realizes how close to Nico she's scooted from the annoyed huff he lets out when her leg inches nearly on top of his.
"Jason and I visited Diocletian's Palace together once. I returned there knowing he'd need the scepter. Then, I found his note," Reyna looks over to Jason, who nods at her with a small smile. The gesture makes her frown deeper. She turns back to Juliette with an even more intense stare. "Tracking you down after that was easy. You leave obvious trails."
"Well," Julie tries to smile. "Subtlety has never been a Greek trait, right?"
The others snort, and a bit of the tension dissipates. Julie watches nervously as Reyna and Jason exchange a look, though. The praetor takes a sip from a water bottle, perfect, mascara-free eyes focused on her former colleague as he flushes and ducks down to take a bite of his sandwich. "Indeed."
There's something fluttery bouncing around in the pit of Julie's stomach. She's not sure how to handle it. Looking at Reyna - or Jason, for that matter - makes it worse, so she starts picking blades of grass to weave together into a crown as the conversation continues.
She feels Nico shift beside her. A small weight rests on her knee, and she looks up from her craft to find half an Oreo - the half with the icing still on - waiting for her attention. She bites back a smile and accepts the cookie. Nico finally doesn't shrug her off when she leans over to rest her head on his shoulder.
"So, the twenty million peso question," Leo calls over as he hops down the rope ladder. He jogs up to them and wipes his sooty hands on his cargo pants. "We got this slightly used forty-foot-tall statue of Athena. What do we do with it?"
"As nice as it looks on this hill, I didn't come all this way to admire it," Reyna begins. "It has to be returned to Camp Halfblood by a Roman leader, if I understand correctly."
She looks to Annabeth, who nods, hand visibly tightening on Percy's knee. He covers it with his, and the blonde relaxes a little. "I had a dream in...Tartarus. I was on Halfblood Hill, and Athena's voice said 'I must stand here. The Roman must bring me.'"
Julie glances over at Jason. She knows he's been confused lately, torn between the Greeks and his home at Camp Jupiter. She sees that confusion now in the slump of his shoulders as he stares up at the towering statue. Following his gaze, Juliette suppresses a shiver.
Athena has always kind of creeped her out. Seeing her even larger and up close is not her idea of 'art.'
"It makes sense," Nico shrugs beside her. He offers his half pomegranate to Julie, and she plucks a few seeds for herself, still snuggled into the scowling boy's shoulder. "It's a powerful symbol. A Roman restoring it to the Greeks...That could heal a historical rift. Maybe even heal the gods of their split personalities."
Julie remembers the flash of amber she'd seen in her mother's usually bright blue eyes, the obvious strain in the tendons of her delicate neck as she'd tried to keep her mind in one piece when they last spoke. If Aphrodite is in such a state, Julie doesn't even want to know how bad off the Big Three are.
"Okay, but how is Reyna supposed to get it there?" Leo asks. The girl in question glowers at him, and he shrinks a bit. Julie purses her lips at the tension still between them and makes a mental note to maybe not leave them in a room alone together.
"The Labyrinth?" Hazel suggests.
If Julie had been drinking something, she'd have done a spit take. "Um no?"
"Absolutely not," Annabeth agrees.
Percy winces. "Sorry to shoot you down, Hazel, it's just..." He glances at Juliette, and their eyes connect briefly before Julie distracts herself with sneaking extra food onto Nico's plate. "For one thing, the passages are too narrow. The statue would never fit."
"For another thing, it's, like, the worst idea ever. No offense," Julie cringes. "No one should ever go down there again."
Hazel smiles sheepishly. "You're right. Never mind."
"Any other ideas?" Reyna asks flatly, arms crossed.
Julie chews on her lip in thought. There's no way she'd be able to carry something that heavy, at least not without someone there to guard her while she does. Carrying it across the Atlantic seems a little too risky. One flicker of power over the open waters, and they lose the Parthenos completely. She's probably not an option.
"I could go," Frank suggests. "If I'm a praetor, I should go."
"No, Frank Zhang," Reyna denies. She folds her hands behind her back, chin raised in perfect poise. "I hope we will work side by side in the future, but for now your place is with the crew of this ship. You are one of the Seven-"
"I'm not."
Julie freezes.
The circle goes still, everyone turning to look over at Nico warily, like they aren't sure if he's joking or not. Julie's mind clouds over with fear. That was not his "bazinga" voice.
"Nico-" Hazel starts.
He raises a hand to cut his sister off. He looks to Percy, and Julie feels ready to shed her too tight skin like a snake. "I'll go with Reyna. I can transport the statue via shadowtravel."
"What?!" Julie squeaks, sitting bolt upright.
"Um, Nico," Percy says awkwardly. "I know you just got the nine of us to the surface, and that was awesome, but a year ago you said it was dangerous just transporting yourself-"
"I've changed since I got back from Tartarus," Nico hisses. Percy shuts his mouth with a snap at the venom in the younger boy's voice, but Julie whirls around to stare at him in horror.
"We just got you back! You've barely even recovered the base level of your powers, and you want to teleport across the world?" She asks incredulously. Julie hugs herself and pleads with her friend. "If you're going, there's no way you're going without me."
Nico shakes his head. "Your place is here. They'll die without you."
"You'll die-"
"I won't," He says firmly. His face softens at the pure fear probably painted across Julie's face, and he reaches a tentative hand out to squeeze her shoulder. "I'll make short jumps. A few hundred miles at a time. It's true that I'll be weak after, though, so I'll need Reyna to defend me and the statue."
"Understood," Reyna nods. She looks around at the group challengingly, and they all squirm in discomfort. "Any objections?"
Yes. Yes, Julie objects!
But, Nico's sunken eyes are earnest, and the hand on Julie's shoulder has stayed there longer than any physical contact Nico's ever initiated before. If he's really serious...
"Then, it's agreed," Reyna declares. "We'll meet at the statue at sunset."
Nico nods, and the praetor turns on her heel to make for the Argo.
Julie stares at her friend. She wants to say something to him, but the words won't come. After a moment of tense silence, Nico clears his throat and stands. "I should go rest before the first jump," He decides.
His aviator jacket flaps slightly in the breeze as he stalks off after Reyna, and Julie's thighs are stinging from how hard her nails are digging into the skin there.
Hazel lets out a breath. "He's acting strangely," She mumbles. "I don't think he's thinking this through."
"He'll be fine," Jason says softly.
Julie can't sit here anymore. She stands up abruptly, and her friends all watch in concern as she brushes off the back of her denim shorts. "I'm going to go pack them supplies," She excuses. "Come see me if anybody's stitches pop."
She heads for the rope ladder and tries to keep her scales hidden under her skin.
"Are you doing this because you want to, or because you think you're expendable?"
Nico turns to her. He looks vaguely amused by the bluntness of her question, but Julie digs her heels in and stands in the doorway so he can't escape her interrogation. He rolls his eyes at her bouncer impression and continues placing the few possessions he has into Hazel's spare backpack.
"I'm doing this because it's the obvious solution."
Julie glares at him. "Really? Because none of us would have ever thought to ask something like this of you."
"That's because Chase is the only one here with a brain, and she's been busy" Nico sighs. A stamp of Julie's foot makes him turn back around, and he looks at her tiredly. Like she's a misbehaving toddler. "The statue needs to get to Camp Halfblood. I'm the only one who can get it there. Why are you making this difficult?"
"Because, I don't want you to die!" Julie shouts, losing her temper. "Is that really so hard to understand?! You're my best friend, Nico!"
He laughs. Like, really laughs. And, it doesn't even sound mean.
A gentle, genuinely amused sounding chuckle rolls from his vocal cords so melodically that it startles Juliette into silence. A warmth blooms in her belly, and Nico takes advantage of her sudden speechlessness to zip up the bag and cross the room to approach her. Julie looks down at him, and she's suddenly struck by how quickly he's catching up to her in height. She barely even has to tilt her head anymore.
"I'm not planning to die," He says with a smirk. "I'm doing this because I can, and..."
Julie scans her friend's face. His black curls have grown down to his shoulders almost, but they're not tangled. The sharpness of his features has mellowed a little over the last few weeks thanks to Julie's attentiveness in making sure he's eating enough. There's even a slight sparkle in his eye as he grins at her slyly, backpack slung over one shoulder.
"Maybe I'd like to take another look at that cabin you built. Can't do that if it's blown up." He shrugs.
Julie's chest swells with hope. She blinks away tears, finally coming to terms with this decision of his.
Because, that's what it is. Nico's decision. And, she's gotta be okay with that.
Julie wipes her eyes and nods, and Nico snorts at her. He opens one arm, and Juliette practically leaps in for a hug, burying her face into the shoulder of his jacket. "Do you have ambrosia?" She asks.
"Yes."
"Bandages? Antiseptic?"
"Yes."
"What about the electrolyte powder I bought you?"
Nico sighs and draws out of the hug. He flicks Julie on the forehead, and she grumbles irritably. He just shakes his head. "I've lived on my own for years, Julie. I know what I'm doing."
"Okay, okay, just," She huffs. "Be careful?"
Nico nods. He adjusts the backpack on his shoulder and steps around her to disappear out the door.
It takes a good ten minutes of rummaging around in the infirmary for Juliette to process that last sentence he'd said. Once she does, a wide smile breaks out across her face, giddiness putting a skip in her step.
Julie, he'd called her.
She didn't think Nico would ever be one for nicknames.