Chapter Title: I Find Myself Staring At Hell Incarnate
Alternate Chapter Title: The Lost Heroes Meet The Monster King's Minions, Part One
(A/N: Brief note here, the end of this is partially based off of the TMNT 2003 Season One Episode "The Shredder Strikes Back, Part One", the Seventeenth Episode of the Season, as well as the Tenth Episode of the same season "The Shredder Strikes, Part One" and the third episode of Back To The Sewer (Season 7) "Something Wicked". Another thing to note is that this will be a very long chapter, fair warning.
Also, special shout-out to goddessofwisdom- here for non-OC reasons, as well as Az56796743 and -JASONSGRACE for similar reasons. If you all have been keeping with this story, then this is a chapter you don't want to miss!)
Jason woke up quickly to the sound of what sounded first like rocks pelting the windshield of the helicopter that the six of them were all flying in currently. Then he realized it was sleet. He crawled forward, grabbing the seats in front of him for balance as Clara, Alyssa, and Bryce all stirred. In front of Leo and Piper, frost was building up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blotted out the view.
"An ice storm?" Piper shouted over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?"
Jason didn't really think so. He didn't know why at this point, but something about this storm seemed conscious, malevolent—like it was intentionally slamming them. Then again, it seemed like just about everything and everyone that the six of them had encountered on this quest had been trying to kill them — either just for trying to save Hera or for stuff that wasn't their fault at all.
After leaving Camp Half Blood, the six of them had all flown on top of Festus to Quebec to find Boreas, god of the North Wind. Jason, Clara, and Bryce had nearly gotten into a fight with Boreas' sons Calais and Zethes, but Piper had used her charm-speak to defuse the situation. The two Boreads had then let everyone inside and into the throne room, except Leo as they thought that Festus may cause trouble. Then again, the fact that Leo seemed to have instantly developed an attraction to Boreas' daughter Khione, who turned out to be working for Gaea, might have had something to do with it. Even now, Jason still wasn't sure if that had been the case or not.
Inside Boreas' throne room, they had learned that Aeolus, master of the winds, was angry with the Olympians simply because of the consequences of Typhon's defeat earlier in August, something that none of them — at least not directly or indirectly for the most part — had anything to do with. Included somewhere within the colorful version of the rants Boreas had heard from Aeolus was something about how the Monster King had the ability to command the storm spirits to stop their attacks and dissipate by the King's command, plus a lament about how Colton was currently missing — and also hadn't been smart enough or perhaps hadn't been told that he could do this. Jason wasn't sure really what to make of it.
The conversation had then turned dark, when Boreas told them that because the Olympians are Gods, Aeolus cannot take out his anger on them and instead, he has ordered Boreas and the other winds under his control to kill any demigod that asks for help, choosing to take his frustrations out on their children. Bryce and Clara, quite predictably, had been outraged when this became known.
Boreas also explained that since Jason was a son of Zeus, they had also been under standing orders to wait for one of Zeus' kids and hear that child explain himself before passing judgement. It made sense — to a degree. Either way, Jason had been too nervous to explain his position, only to be saved by Piper — while Bryce basically pulled Jason over to the side and gave him a pep talk. Boreas then proceeded to inform them that he knew the storm spirits that had attacked them all — the questers searching for Hera — at the Grand Canyon and where their mistress resides — in Chicago. Suddenly, Boreas then transformed into another version of himself and lets them go, much to Khione's apparent displeasure as she then proceeded to briefly engage Clara in a staring contest before Clara proceeded to rejoin the others.
Festus had fallen from the sky around Detroit, and Clara had proven her worth with her spear, defending her friends alongside Leo and for the most part, killing the last of three Cyclopes that had captured the rest of her friends, a Cyclopes named Ma Gasket, with her weapon out of rage. They hadn't noticed the three monsters instantly beginning to reform before they had left, however.
They had ran into Medea, Princess Of Colchis, in Chicago. She had proceeded to use charm-speak on everyone, and found that to her surprise, only Piper had not succumbed to it. Despite Medea revealing that Piper's father was being held hostage by the replacement giant for Enceladus, Areti, Piper had still managed to break her friends out of the trance — for they had all been about to fight each other to death under Medea's charm-speak. Festus easily defeated the sun dragons Medea then released, and as a result, the six of them had escaped there with both Coach Hedge, who had been held in Medea's store as a prisoner, and a cage full of Venti in tow.
The weight of the cages however, turned out to be too much for Festus on the way to Aeolus' fortress, so they ended up landing and colliding with the resurrected King with the Golden touch Midas and his son Lityerses. Everyone except Jason had been turned to gold, only for Jason to free everyone — both his friends and the other golden statues — through a combination of combat prowess, trickery, and use of his demigod powers. Alyssa's knife, which had transformed after she had thrown her hairband before being turned to gold, proved to be especially useful to Jason as he had secretly planted it on Lityerses during their fight without anyone noticing, and when Midas noticed it and went to grab it, he turned his son into gold.
After reuniting with Thalia, Piper's revelations that Gaea was trying to get her to sabotage the quest, confronting Aeolus and almost getting killed by Harpies, and then dealing with Areti on Mount Diablo to rescue Piper's father, here they were approaching the Wolf House, a place that even though Jason, Alyssa, Bryce, and Clara still didn't know why it felt that way to them, held major importance in their lives. Along the part of the journey involving Aeolus and Areti, they had been assisted by a mysterious shadowy figure with a sword and completely white eyes who had first fought the harpies in order to allow them to escape, and then fought Areti briefly - and held their own against the giant despite being smaller than him - to allow Jason to get Zeus to strike the giant down.
Jason didn't exactly know why, but the way that Piper, Leo, and Bryce all had warily looked at the unknown ally of theirs who had disappeared without a trace after both times it had helped him - seemed to suggest to him that they knew more about this guy than met the eye. He couldn't tell.
Either way, right now, Jason could sense that they couldn't be too far away from their destination. "We've got to be getting close" he muttered.
"Thank god.." Clara said behind them. "I honestly cannot wait to rescue Hera and get this over with finally."
Bryce and Alyssa both nodded in agreement. None of the three had particularly enjoyed much of the quest, to be honest — though they had all fulfilled their respective parts of the prophecy for the most part, all except Bryce that is. He didn't know why, but he felt that his part in the prophecy had still yet to be fulfilled.
Leo was too busy wrestling with the stick to reply. Suddenly it wasn't so easy to drive the chopper. Its movements turned sluggish and jerky. The whole machine shuddered in the icy wind. The helicopter probably hadn't been prepped for cold-weather flying. The controls refused to respond, and they started to lose altitude.
"LEO! THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Clara screamed.
"TRYING MY HARDEST NOT TO CRASH!" Leo shouted back. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM DOING?!"
Personally, Alyssa was praying that they didn't crash. That would be depressing, to have come all this way only to fall just before the end. She wouldn't settle for that, and she knew that her companions most likely would not either.
Below them, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill loomed in front of them and Leo yanked the stick, just clearing the treetops.
"There!" Jason shouted, pointing straight ahead.
A small valley opened up before them, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around them were flashes of light that reminded Leo - and Jason as well - of the tracer fire at Midas's compound. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist. Combat seemed to be everywhere.
"Good.. some fighting going on.. about time.. I was bored already from this ride.." Clara muttered, as she was definitely looking ready for a brawl right about now. You could read it in her eyes.
Leo set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and killed the engine. He was about to relax when he heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurtling toward them out of the mist.
"Out!" Leo screamed.
"Get down!" Bryce hollered.
They all leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking Leo and Bryce off their feet, splattering ice all over them, and causing Jason to get his back covered in a healthy heaping of snow. He shivered for a moment while shaking the snow off, and then he turned to see what had happened.
To his surprise, it seemed that what had looked like the world's largest snowball—a chunk of snow, ice, and dirt the size of a garage—had completely flattened the Bell 412. Jason sighed, then he looked around, noticing that Alyssa and Clara were okay, Piper was running up to him, and Leo and Bryce were getting up shakily. He ran over to the two boys, Piper hot on his heels.
"You all right?" Jason asked as he reached them, Piper close behind. Both Leo and Bryce looked fine except for being speckled with snow and mud.
"Yeah." Leo shivered. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."
"Ain't that the truth.." Bryce muttered.
Piper pointed south. "Fighting's over there." Then she frowned. "No ... it's all around us."
She was right. The sounds of combat rang across the valley. The snow and mist made it hard to tell for sure, but there seemed to be a circle of fighting all around the Wolf House.
"Combatants all around us.. oh joy.." Clara said, taking out her coin, tossing it into the air, and catching her spear when it came back down. "..this should be fun."
Alyssa looked a bit worried, but shook off her fear and shook her hair, her headband turning into a knife instantly that she caught in her hand. Bryce reached in his pocket and took out his sword, knowing full well that chances were.. they would soon be in the thick of whatever the hell was going on around them.
Behind them all loomed what could safely be described as Jack London's dream home—a massive ruin of red and gray stones and rough-hewn timber beams. Leo could imagine how it had looked before it burned down—a combination log cabin and castle, like a billionaire lumberjack might build. But in the mist and sleet, the place had a lonely, haunted feel. Leo could totally believe the ruins were cursed. Bryce wasn't too far behind in thinking the same thing - it gave him the creeps.
"Jason!" a girl's voice called.
Their heads all turned towards the source.
Thalia appeared from the fog, her parka caked with snow. Her bow was in her hand, and her quiver was almost empty. She ran toward them, but made it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre—one of the Earthborn—burst out of the storm behind her, a raised club in each hand.
"Holy fuck.." Bryce hissed, a little bit shocked at what came after Jason's sister.
"Look out!" Leo yelled. They rushed to help, but Thalia had it under control. She launched herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivoted like a gymnast and landed in a kneeling position. The ogre got a silver arrow right between the eyes and melted into a pile of clay.
Thalia stood and retrieved her arrow, but the point had snapped off. "That was my last one." She kicked the pile of clay resentfully. "Stupid ogre."
"Nice shot, though," Leo said.
"What do you mean 'my last one'?" Bryce asked, before Alyssa punched him in the shoulder. "Hey! What was that for?"
"She's out of arrows, genius.. use your head.." the blonde beauty replied.
Bryce didn't say anything back to her.
Thalia ignored Leo as usual (which no doubt meant she thought he was as cool as ever). She hugged Jason and nodded to Piper. "Just in time, you guys. My Hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we'll be overrun any minute."
"And wolves—Lycaon's minions." Thalia blew a fleck of ice off her nose.
"Oh.. that bitch.." Clara muttered. Lycaon's minions had nearly gotten to Alyssa and would have torn the blonde apart if she hadn't been there to rampage through them in a fit of rage.
"Also storm spirits—" Thalia continued.
"But we gave them to Aeolus!" Piper protested.
"Who tried to kill us," Leo reminded her. "Maybe he's helping Gaea again."
"Don't think we have much time to figure that out.." Bryce said.
"I don't know how, but either way.. he's right.." Thaila said. "The monsters keep re-forming almost as fast as we can kill them. We took the Wolf House with no problem: surprised the guards and sent them straight to Tartarus. But then this freak snowstorm blew in. Wave after wave of monsters started attacking. Now we're surrounded. I don't know who or what is leading the assault, but I think they planned this. It was a trap to kill anyone who tried to rescue Hera."
"Where is she?" Jason asked.
"Inside," Thalia said. "We tried to free her, but we can't figure out how to break the cage. It's only a few minutes until the sun goes down. Hera thinks that's the moment when Porphyrion will be reborn. Plus, most monsters are stronger at night. If we don't free Hera soon—"
She didn't need to finish the thought. They all understood what she meant.
"Guess we better get started then.." Bryce muttered.
That was all they needed, for the six of them all followed Thalia into the ruined mansion. Jason stepped over the threshold and immediately collapsed. For the most part, Clara, Alyssa, and Bryce all did the exact same thing, though Alyssa managed to catch her before she collapsed too. She helped Bryce up while clutching her forehead, and then helped Clara up too.
"Hey!" Leo caught him. "None of that, man. What's wrong?"
"This place ..." Jason shook his head. "Sorry ... It came rushing back to me."
"Seems to be that way for the rest of us too.." Bryce muttered. "Fucking shit man."
"So you all have been here before," Piper said.
"We all have.." Thalia said. Her expression was grim, like she was reliving someone's death. "This is where my mom took us when Jason was a child. She left him here, told me he was dead. He just disappeared."
"She gave me to the wolves," Jason murmured. "At Hera's insistence. She gave me to Lupa."
"Hera gave you to Lupa? Seriously?" Clara said. The three fellow Romans were rather surprised at that detail - for they never knew until now.
"That part I didn't know." Thalia frowned. "Who is Lupa?"
An explosion shook the building. Just outside, a blue mushroom cloud billowed up, raining snowflakes and ice like a nuclear blast made of cold instead of heat.
"Maybe this isn't the time for questions," Leo suggested. "Show us the goddess."
"You got that right.. time for some monster killing!" Clara hollowed, seemingly already in a bit of a blood lust now.
Alyssa sighed.
Once inside, the four Romans seemed to get their bearings on things. The house was built in a giant U, and Jason led them between the two wings to an outside courtyard with an empty reflecting pool. At the bottom of the pool, just as Jason had described from his dream, two spires of rock and root tendrils had cracked through the foundation.
One of the spires was much bigger—a solid dark mass about twenty feet high, and to Leo it looked like a stone body bag. Underneath the mass of fused tendrils he could make out the shape of a head, wide shoulders, a massive chest and arms, like the creature was stuck waist deep in the earth. No, not stuck—rising.
"That must be Kronis.." Bryce said, gaping at the sight.
"I think you're right.." Alyssa said, looking very anxious now.
On the opposite end of the pool, the other spire was smaller and more loosely woven. Each tendril was as thick as a telephone pole, with so little space between them that Leo doubted he could've gotten his arm through. Still, he could see inside. And in the center of the cage stood was the woman he remembered as Tía Callida.
She looked exactly like Leo remembered: dark hair covered with a shawl, the black dress of a widow, a wrinkled face with glinting, scary eyes.
She didn't glow or radiate any sort of power. She looked like a regular mortal woman, his good old psychotic babysitter.
Leo dropped into the pool and approached the cage. "Hola, Tía. Little bit of trouble?"
She crossed her arms and sighed in exasperation. "Don't inspect me like I'm one of your machines, Leo Valdez. Get me out of here!"
"Wait.." Bryce said. "Wait a minute. She knows you?"
"Less talking, Bryce.." Clara hollered, already spearing a few of Lycaon's minions that had crept up behind them. "..more fighting!"
"Chill, woman.." Bryce shot back, slicing open another ogre without much issue with his sword.
Thalia stepped next to Leo and looked at the cage with distaste—or maybe she was looking at the goddess. "We tried everything we could think of, Leo, but maybe my heart wasn't in it. If it was up to me, I'd just leave her in there."
"Ohh, Thalia Grace," the goddess said. "When I get out of here, you'll be sorry you were ever born."
"Try that.. and I'll break your damn legs.. no one harms Jason's sister.." Clara muttered angrily and also quietly as she kept spearing monsters left and right.
"Save it!" Thalia snapped. "You've been nothing but a curse to every child of Zeus for ages. You sent a bunch of intestinally challenged cows after my friend Annabeth—"
"She was disrespectful!"
"You dropped a statue on my legs."
"It was an accident!"
"And you took my brother!" Thalia's voice cracked with emotion. "Here—on this spot. You ruined our lives. We should leave you to Gaea!"
"Can both of you shut up?!" Bryce hollered, as he was slicing open more monsters. "It's hard to fight over your noise."
Hera looked a bit pissed off, but Jason stepped in to defuse things. "Hey," he said to Thalia. "Thalia—Sis—I know. But this isn't the time. You should help your Hunters."
Thalia clenched her jaw. "Fine. For you, Jason. But if you ask me, she isn't worth it."
Thalia turned, leaped out of the pool, and stormed from the building.
"I mean.. she has our memories.. so.." Bryce muttered, which Thalia happened to overhear.
"POINT STILL STANDS!" she shouted.
Leo turned to Hera with grudging respect. "Intestinally challenged cows?"
"Focus on the cage, Leo," she grumbled. "And Jason—you are wiser than your sister. I chose my champion well."
"I'm not your champion, lady," Jason said. "I'm only helping you because you stole me and my friends' memories and you're better than the alternative. Speaking of which, what's going on with that?"
He nodded to the other spire that looked like the king-size granite body bag. Was Leo imagining it, or had it grown taller since they'd gotten here?
Bryce simply gulped when he took another look at it. He definitely could see that it had gotten bigger.
"That, Jason," Hera said, "is the replacement king of the giants being brought into the mortal world."
"Gross," Piper said.
"Indeed," Hera said. "Kronis, the replacement for the strongest of his kind, Porphyrion. Gaea needed a great deal of power to raise him again —my power. For weeks I've grown weaker as my essence was used to grow him a new form."
"So you're like a heat lamp," Leo guessed. "Or fertilizer."
The goddess glared at him, but Leo didn't care. This old lady had been making his life miserable since he was a baby. He totally had rights to rag on her.
"Joke all you wish," Hera said in a clipped tone. "But at sundown, it will be too late. The giant will awake. He will offer me a choice: marry him, or be consumed by the earth. And I cannot marry him. We will all be destroyed. And as we die, Gaea will awaken."
Leo frowned at the giant's spire. "Can't we blow it up or something?"
"Without me, you do not have the power," Hera said. "You might as well try to destroy a mountain."
"That's why you have to open her cage with Piper, dumbass! It was said in the prophecy!" Bryce hollered at Leo.
"Done that once today," Jason said, in regards to the part about destroying mountains.
"Just hurry up and let me out!" Hera demanded.
Jason scratched his head. "Leo, can you do it?"
"I don't know." Leo tried not to panic. "Besides, if she's a goddess, why hasn't she busted herself out?"
"Leo, for gods' sake, don't be stupid now.." Clara said, also hollering at Leo over the noise of battle. Alyssa, for the most part, took to killing stray monsters that had slipped past Clara and Bryce, and she was doing very well at that task.
Hera paced furiously around her cage, cursing in Ancient Greek. "Use your brain, Leo Valdez. I picked you because you're intelligent. Once trapped, a god's power is useless. Your own father trapped me once in a golden chair. It was humiliating! I had to beg—beg him for my freedom and apologize for throwing him off Olympus."
"Sounds fair," Leo said.
Jason had to admit - Leo did have a point there.
Hera simply gave Leo the godly stink-eye. "I've watched you since you were a child, son of Hephaestus, because I knew you could aid me at this moment. If anyone can find a way to destroy this abomination, it is you."
"But it's not a machine. It's like Gaea thrust her hand out of the ground and ..." Leo felt dizzy. The line of their prophecy came back to him: The forge and dove shall break the cage."Hold on. I do have an idea. Piper, I'm going to need your help. And we're going to need time."
The air turned brittle with cold. The temperature dropped so fast, Leo's lips cracked and his breath changed to mist. Frost coated the walls of the Wolf House. Venti rushed in —but instead of winged men, these were shaped like horses, with dark storm-cloud bodies and manes that crackled with lightning. Some had silver arrows sticking out of their flanks. Behind them came red-eyed wolves and the six-armed Earthborn.
"OH BOY! HERE'S A GOOD SIZED MOB!" Bryce shouted, turning to face the new threat, shivering all the while.
Clara smiled, and ran towards the impending melee. "TIME TO SLICE AND DICE!" she hollered, laughing all the while.
Piper drew her dagger. Jason grabbed an ice-covered plank off the pool floor. Leo reached into his tool belt, but he was so shaken up, all he produced was a tin of breath mints. He shoved them back in, hoping nobody had noticed, and drew a hammer instead. Alyssa simply raised her knife.
One of the wolves padded forward. It was dragging a human-size statue by the leg. At the edge of the pool, the wolf opened its maw and dropped the statue for them to see—an ice sculpture of a girl, an archer with short spiky hair and a surprised look on her face.
"Thalia!" Jason rushed forward, but Piper and Leo pulled him back. The ground around Thalia's statue was already webbed with ice. Leo feared if Jason touched her, he might freeze too.
"FUCKING BITCH!" Clara shouted. "Whoever you are, you'll fucking pay for this!" She was now red hot with anger, as was Alyssa, who had a look of fury in her eyes now. Bryce was simply just mad, angered at what they had done to Jason's sister.
"Who did this?" Jason yelled. His body crackled with electricity. "I'll kill you myself!"
From somewhere behind the monsters, Leo heard a girl's laughter, clear and cold. She stepped out of the mist in her snowy white dress, a silver crown atop her long black hair. She regarded them with those deep brown eyes Leo had thought were so beautiful in Quebec.
"You got to be fucking kidding me.." Bryce muttered under his breath.
"Bon soir, mes amis," said Khione, the goddess of snow. She gave Leo a frosty smile. "Alas, son of Hephaestus, you say you need time? I'm afraid time is one tool you do not have."
Jason didn't really think he could ever feel more afraid or devastated than he did right now, if he had to be honest.
Now his sister was frozen at his feet. He was surrounded by monsters. He'd broken his golden sword and replaced it with a piece of wood. He had approximately five minutes until the replacement king of the giants busted out and destroyed all of them. Jason had already pulled his biggest ace, calling down Zeus's lightning when he'd fought Areti, and he doubted he'd have the strength or the cooperation from above to do it again. Which meant his only assets were one whiny imprisoned goddess, one sort-of girlfriend with a dagger, his three other amnesiac friends, and Leo, who apparently thought he could defeat the armies of darkness with breath mints.
He wasn't exactly in the best of situations, that was for sure.
On top of all this, Jason's worst memories were flooding back. He knew for certain he'd done many dangerous things in his life, but he'd never been closer to death than he was right now.
The enemy was beautiful. Khione smiled, her dark eyes glittering, as a dagger of ice grew in her hand.
"What've you done?" Jason demanded.
"Oh, so many things," the snow goddess purred. "Your sister's not dead, if that's what you mean. She and her Hunters will make fine toys for our wolves. I thought we'd defrost them one at a time and hunt them down for amusement. Let them be the prey for once."
The wolves snarled appreciatively.
"Fuck you, FUCK YOU!" Clara snarled back.
"Yes, my dears." Khione kept her eyes on Jason. "Your sister almost killed their king, you know. Lycaon's off in a cave somewhere, no doubt licking his wounds, but his minions have joined us to take revenge for their master. And soon Kronis will arise, and we shall rule the world."
"Traitor!" Hera shouted. "You meddlesome, D-list goddess! You aren't worthy to pour my wine, much less rule the world."
"You got that right.." Bryce muttered.
Khione sighed. "Tiresome as ever, Queen Hera. I've been wanting to shut you up for millennia."
Khione waved her hand, and ice encased the prison, sealing in the spaces between the earthen tendrils.
"That's better," the snow goddess said. "Now, demigods, about your death—"
"You're the one who tricked Hera into coming here," Jason said. "You gave Zeus the idea of closing Olympus after Colton and Kayla's fight with Porphyrion's rogue faction."
The wolves snarled, and the storm spirits whinnied, ready to attack, but Khione held up her hand. "Patience, my loves. If he wants to talk, what matter? The sun is setting, and time is on our side. Of course, Jason Grace. Like snow, my voice is quiet and gentle, and very cold. It's easy for me to whisper to the other gods, especially when I am only confirming their own deepest fears. Zeus was all too willing to comply, for it is very easy to get him to indulge in the worst traits he inherited from his father. I also whispered in Aeolus's ear that he should issue an order to kill demigods. It is a small service for Gaea, but I'm sure I will be well rewarded when her sons the giants come to power."
"You could've killed us in Quebec," Jason said. "Why let us live?"
Khione wrinkled her nose. "Messy business, killing you in my father's house, especially when he insists on meeting all visitors. I did try, you remember. It would've been lovely if he'd agreed to turn you to ice. But once he'd given you guarantee of safe passage, I couldn't openly disobey him. My father is an old fool. He lives in fear of Zeus and Aeolus, but he's still powerful. Soon enough, when my new masters have awakened, I will depose Boreas and take the throne of the North Wind, but not just yet. Besides, my father did have a point. Your quest was suicidal. I fully expected you to fail."
"I mean.. makes sense.." Bryce said, and everyone just looked at him for a moment. "What? I mean, I wouldn't try killing people in my father's house with the policies Boreas has if I was her.. so to be fair, she does have a point there. Still hate you though Khione."
"And to help us with that," Leo said, "you knocked our dragon out of the sky over Detroit. Those frozen wires in his head—that was your fault. You're gonna pay for that."
"You're also the one who kept Areti informed about us," Piper added. "We've been plagued by snowstorms the whole trip."
"Oh, you fucking bitch.." Alyssa muttered angrily. "..the house of Venus will not stand for this."
"Yes, I feel so close to all of you now!" Khione said. "Once you made it past Omaha, I decided to asked Lycaon to track you down so Jason could die here, at the Wolf House." Khione smiled at him. "You see, Jason, your blood spilled on this sacred ground will taint it for generations. Your demigod brethren will be outraged, especially when they find the bodies of these two from Camp Half-Blood. They'll believe the Greeks have conspired with giants. It will be ... delicious."
"You are a cold hearted fucking bitch.." Bryce said, putting two and two together. Alyssa and Clara both snarled in absolute rage, putting the pieces together just a few moments later. Piper and Leo didn't seem to understand what she was saying. But Jason knew. His memories were returning enough for him to realize how dangerously effective Khione's plan could be.
"You'll set demigods against demigods," he said.
"Ignite a demigod civil war.." Bryce added.
"It's so easy!" said Khione. "As I told you, I only encourage what you would do anyway."
"But why?" Piper spread her hands. "Khione, you'll tear the world apart. The giants will destroy everything. You don't want that. Call off your monsters."
Khione hesitated, but then she laughed in a malicious manner. "Your persuasive powers are improving, girl. But I am a goddess. You can't charm-speak me. We wind gods are creatures of chaos! I'll overthrow Aeolus and let the storms run free. If we destroy the mortal world, all the better! They never honored me, even in Greek times. Humans and their talk of global warming. Pah! I'll cool them down quickly enough. When we retake the ancient places, I will cover the Acropolis in snow."
"The ancient places." Leo's eyes widened. "That's what Areti meant about destroy the roots of the gods. He meant Greece."
Bryce, Alyssa, and Clara's eyes all widened too. They all hadn't considered that part either.
"You could join me, son of Hephaestus," Khione said. "I know you find me beautiful. It would be enough for my plan if these other two were to die. Reject that ridiculous destiny the Fates have given you. Live and be my champion, instead. Your skills would be quite useful."
Leo looked stunned. He glanced behind him, like Khione might be talking to somebody else. For a second Jason was worried. He figured Leo didn't have beautiful goddesses make him offers like this every day.
Leo thought for a moment. On the one hand, he could accept her offer and join her. After all, it seemed like a better alternative than possibly getting pummeled into the ground by Colton when he found about him asking out his girlfriend. But the more he thought about it, the less it was a good idea.
Then Leo laughed so hard, he doubled over. "Yeah, join you. Right. Until you get bored of me and turn me into a Leosicle? Lady, nobody messes with my dragon and gets away with it. Like, I might end up becoming a pancake just because I pissed off a camp legend by asking out his girlfriend, but seriously, screw you Khione. I can't believe I thought you were hot."
Khione's face turned red, very red. "Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold."
She shot a blast of wintry sleet at the demigods, but Leo held up his hand. A wall of fire roared to life in front of them, and the snow dissolved in a steamy cloud.
Leo grinned. "See, lady, that's what happens to snow in Texas. It—freaking—melts."
"HELL YEAH, IT DOES!" Bryce hollered.
Khione hissed. "Enough of this. Hera is failing. Porphyrion is rising. Kill the demigods. Let them be our king's first meal!"
"BRING IT, BITCH!" Clara said back. "LET'S FUCKING GO!"
Jason hefted his icy wooden plank—a stupid weapon to die fighting with—and the monsters charged. A wolf launched itself at him. He stepped back and swung his scrap wood into the beast's snout with a satisfying crack. Maybe only silver could kill it, but a good old-fashioned board could still give it a Tylenol headache.
He turned toward the sound of hooves and saw a storm spirit horse bearing down on him. Jason concentrated and summoned the wind. Just before the spirit could trample him, Jason launched himself into the air, grabbed the horse's smoky neck, and pirouetted onto its back.
The storm spirit reared. It tried to shake Jason, then tried to dissolve into mist to lose him; but somehow Jason stayed on. He willed the horse to remain in solid form, and the horse seemed unable to refuse. Jason could feel it fighting against him. He could sense its raging thoughts—complete chaos straining to break free. It took all Jason's willpower to impose his own wishes and bring the horse under control. He thought about Aeolus, overseeing thousands and thousands of spirits like this, some much worse. No wonder the Master of the Winds had gone a little mad after centuries of that pressure. But Jason had only one spirit to master, and he had to win.
"You're mine now," Jason said.
The horse bucked, but Jason held fast. Its mane flickered as it circled around the empty pool, its hooves causing miniature thunderstorms—tempests—whenever they touched.
"Tempest?" Jason said. "Is that your name?"
The horse spirit shook its mane, evidently pleased to be recognized.
"Fine," Jason said. "Now, let's fight."
He charged into battle, swinging his icy piece of wood, knocking aside wolves and plunging straight through other venti. Tempest was a strong spirit, and every time he plowed through one of his brethren, he discharged so much electricity, the other spirit vaporized into a harmless cloud of mist.
Through the chaos, Jason caught glimpses of his friends. Piper and Alyssa were both surrounded by Earthborn, but both of them seemed to be holding their own. Piper was so impressive-looking as she fought, almost glowing with beauty, that the Earthborn stared at her in awe, forgetting that they were supposed to kill her. They'd lower their clubs and watch dumbfounded as she smiled and charged them. They'd smile back—until she sliced them apart with her dagger, and they melted into mounds of mud. Similar scenes were playing out for Alyssa as well.
Bryce had apparently found an aluminum baseball bat in the chaos somehow, and apart from using his sword to slice open ogres and other monsters left and right, he was using the bat as a club, bashing in the heads of wolves too.
Clara was outright vicious, spearing monsters left and right without even any of them landing so much as even a scratch on her. She was terrifying to watch, in Jason's own opinion.
Leo had taken on Khione herself. While fighting a goddess should've been suicide, Leo was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.
Jason realized that Leo was the only reason they were still alive. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, countering Khione's winter magic. Without him, they would've been frozen like the Hunters long ago. Wherever Leo went, ice melted off the stones. Even Thalia started to defrost a little when Leo stepped near her.
Khione slowly backed away. Her expression went from enraged to shocked to slightly panicked as Leo got closer.
She knew she was on the back foot in the fight. Jason was running out of enemies. Wolves lay in dazed heaps. Some slunk away into the ruins, yelping from their wounds. Piper stabbed the last Earthborn, who toppled to the ground in a pile of sludge. Alyssa was finishing off stray, wounded wolves, while Bryce and Clara simply branched off from the main arena and moved towards the rest of the house, clearing out monsters and rescuing hunters who thought that they were goners. Jason rode Tempest through the last ventus, breaking it into vapor. Then he wheeled around and saw Leo bearing down on the goddess of snow.
"You're too late," Khione snarled. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."
Leo set his hammers ablaze and threw them at the goddess, but she turned into snow—a white powdery image of herself. Leo's hammers slammed into the snow woman, breaking it into a steaming mound of mush.
Piper was breathing hard, but she smiled up at Jason. "Nice horse."
Tempest reared on his hind legs, arcing electricity across his hooves. A complete show-off.
Then Jason heard a cracking sound behind him. The melting ice on Hera's cage sloughed off in a curtain of slush, and the goddess called, "Oh, don't mind me! Just the queen of the heavens, dying over here!"
"Shit.." Alyssa muttered. "Hera."
Jason dismounted and told Tempest to stay put. The four demigods jumped into the pool and ran to the spire.
Leo frowned. "Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?"
"No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry!"
As much as Jason disliked Hera, what he saw inside the cage alarmed him. Not only was Hera sinking, the ground was rising around her like water in a tank. Liquid rock had already covered her shins. "The giant wakes!" Hera warned. "You only have seconds!"
"On it," Leo said. "Piper, I need your help. Talk to the cage."
"What?" she said.
"Talk to it. Use everything you've got. Convince Gaea to sleep. Lull her into a daze. Just slow her down, try to get the tendrils to loosen while I—"
"Right!" Piper cleared her throat and said, "Hey, Gaea. Nice night, huh? Boy, I'm tired. How about you? Ready for some sleep?"
The more she talked, the more confident she sounded. Jason felt his own eyes getting heavy, and he had to force himself not to focus on her words. It seemed to have some effect on the cage. The mud was rising more slowly. The tendrils seemed to soften just a little—becoming more like tree root than rock. Leo pulled a circular saw out of his tool belt. How it fit in there, Jason had no idea. Then Leo looked at the cord and grunted in frustration. "I don't have anywhere to plug it in!"
The spirit horse Tempest jumped into the pit and whinnied.
"Really?" Jason asked.
Tempest dipped his head and trotted over to Leo. Leo looked dubious, but he held up the plug, and a breeze whisked it into the horse's flank. Lighting sparked, connecting with the prongs of the plug, and the circular saw whirred to life.
"Sweet!" Leo grinned. "Your horse comes with AC outlets!"
Their good mood didn't last long. On the other side of the pool, the giant's spire crumbled with a sound like a tree snapping in half. Its outer sheath of tendrils exploded from the top down, raining stone and wood shards as the giant shook himself free and climbed out of the earth. The sounds of this had both Clara and Bryce running like hell back into the area, where both of them skidded to a halt, stopped dead in their tracks by what they saw.
Jason hadn't thought anything could be scarier than Areti.
He was wrong.
He knew that Porphyrion was supposed to be even taller and even more muscular, but Kronis.. he looked both even taller and also with muscles that were completely on steroids. He was ripped to a level that might as well have looked like that he could simply crush Titans to death with his own bare hands. He didn't radiate heat, or show any signs of breathing fire, but there was something more terrible about him—a kind of strength, even magnetism, as if the giant were so huge and dense he had his own gravitational field.
Like all Giants, including Areti, the replacement king of the giants was humanoid from the waist up, clad in bronze armor, and from the waist down he had scaly dragon's legs; but his skin wasn't the color of lima beans, as had been said of Porphyrion. Kronis' skin was the color of an even darker shade of green, that much was certain. His hair was green as summer leaves, but even while braided in even longer locks than Porphyrion was said to have, his hair was also like leaves with very sharp edges, even more decorated with weapons - daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of them bent and bloody—maybe trophies taken from demigods eons before, than was said to be the case with Porphyrion. The fact that he had what looked like to be a massive sword forming in his right hand didn't help matters either at all. When the giant opened his eyes, they were blank white, like polished marble. He took a deep breath.
"Alive!" he bellowed. "Praise to Gaea!"
Jason made a heroic little whimpering sound he hoped his friends couldn't hear. He was very sure no demigod could solo this guy. Kronis looked like he could lift two mountains at the exact same time. He looked like he could crush Jason with one finger and not have to use much pressure at all.
"Leo," Jason said.
"Huh?" Leo's mouth was wide open. Even Piper seemed dazed.
"You guys keep working," Jason said. "Get Hera free!"
"What are you going to do?" Piper asked. "You can't seriously—"
"Entertain a giant?" Jason said. "I've got no choice."
"Yeah.." Bryce muttered. "I don't really see any other choice with Mr. Steroids here."
"Excellent!" the giant roared as Jason approached. "An appetizer! Who are you—Hermes? Ares?"
Jason thought about going with that idea, but something told him not to.
"I'm Jason Grace," he said. "Son of Jupiter."
Those white eyes bored into him. Behind him, Leo's circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
Kronis threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus, you sacrifice a son to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."
The sky didn't even rumble. No help from above. Jason was on his own.
He dropped his makeshift club. His hands were covered in splinters, but that didn't matter now. He had to buy Leo and Piper some time, and he couldn't do that without a proper weapon.
It was time to act a whole lot more confident than he felt.
"If you knew who I was," Jason yelled up at the giant, "you'd be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."
The giant's eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. "So ... we'll start by boasting, will we?"
Just as Kronis was about to continue, the roof of the building exploded, causing everyone to hit the deck. A few moments of smoke and dust filled the area, but it soon disappeared. Jason was about to check to see if he had suffered any injuries, as Kronis got back on his feet in front of Jason, when Leo, Piper, and Bryce all cried out, "YOU?!" at the exact same time.
Jason turned around. Leo and Piper were now returning to working on Hera's cage, while Bryce, Alyssa, and Clara were all staring up to where the ceiling had once been, cold breaths coming out of their mouths and noses, eyes wide and looking terrified at something above them all.
The next words out of Kronis' mouth only reinforced this. "NO.. NO.. IT CANNOT BE!"
Jason turned back around, and then looked up above Kronis, only to find himself staring up at what he could only describe as hell incarnate.
Standing along the edge of what used to be part of the roof, gazing down into the room, was a crowd of warriors - some of them that looked human, but also of whom didn't look human. A familiar figure among the crowd on the beam was Charis, looking fiery as ever now, but scattered amongst the crowd were four other figures in Greek armor made out of a different element. One was complete darkness, another was water, one was light, one out of wind, and the last made out of Earth. All of them carrying staffs that were made up of the same material that their armor was made up of - it was mind-blowing to see, if Jason had to be honest here. Accompanying them seemed to be human sized figures that in Jason's mind, completely broke logic. The variety of creatures up there was so bizarre Jason, Piper, Leo, Clara, Bryce, and Alyssa all had trouble believing that were seeing what they were seeing.
A seven foot tall Cyclopes that looked like he was normally bigger than this that was literally on fire, or to be accurate, the monster's whole body was made of fire for the most part, with Stygian armor on top of it, and a three toed symbol in the middle through both the fire and the armor, revealing its heart to be actual lava. A massive skeleton warrior with what looked like a pitchfork in its hands, made out of water. A large, hulking beast with massive teeth, two horns growing out of its head, and a third eye in the center of its forehead.. wearing a loincloth of tiger pelt, with what looked like a spiked club in its hand, and made out of light. A large Yeti made out of Earth with a massive steel club. A large, tall dude dressed in ancient Chinese clothing with its arms outstretched that looked like a stiff yet somehow living corpse.
Beings that defied all description and logic were backed up by equally menacing, though more human figures, specifically.. a large group of muscular brutes dressed in red and black clothing, with torn capes, bandages on their arms, and what seemed like arm pads on the sides of them at certain places. They also had what were known as kasas, straw hats that resembled a large, shallow upside bowl on top of their heads, and they all had blood red eyes underneath the red cloth kind of masks that they wore. A red symbol of a pronged triangle with three toes facing upward was attached to their belts. Each of these generally six foot tall brutes also carried a certain kind of weapon in their hands. All told, Jason could count seventeen of them standing there, carrying a trident, spear, battle axe, twin-bladed sword, double xiphos, double gladius, twin falx*, chain-sickle, double katana, Wakizashi**, spiked combat club, tantō, twin khopesh***, Pata****, halberd, Aruval*****, and twin Tomahawks in their arms respectively. Whatever the case was with these guys, one thing was definitely clear in Jason's mind. These guys were not to be messed with at all.
Above them fluttered two even more bizarre creatures. To the left was a giant eagle-like bird with yellow eyes, three separate beaks on its face, white and tan feathers, and very long wings that mounted what looked like specially designed machine guns full of the sharp feathers Stymphalian Birds used to launch at targets. On the right was a large gargoyle completely made out of wind, with a menacing look on its face, holding a twin bladed sword in its hands.
Both of them were very scary in their own right, Jason couldn't deny that at all.
But hovering above even these two creatures, was the sight that made the demigods', Kronis', and Hera's blood run cold most of all. It was the same figure that had appeared at Camp Half Blood for Piper, Leo, and Bryce, as well as at Aeolus' palace and at Mount Diablo. This time though, the figure was different than before. It may have been just as shadowy as ever before, but even so, Jason could make out that the figure was wearing armor now, armor very similar to what had been said of a certain someone. He could make out a gauntlet also similar to what a certain someone was wearing.
But what sealed the deal to the figure's identity was the crown. A crown that looked so similar to the Essen Crown, the world's oldest surviving Lily Crown located in Essen, Germany.. yet looked so very different at the same time. It had been constructed out of metals from Tartarus and painted red and black with purple mixed in this time. The shape of the crown still makes one familiar with Byzantine history recall a Byzantine circlet though. The band and diameter of this crown had been greatly expanded in order to fit the head of the figure that was wearing it, way more than the similar Essen Crown's 3.5 cm wide band and 12.5 cm diameter. The precious stones running along the border which runs around the whole circumference of the crown consists of hard diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and other precious gems intermixed with precious stones found in Tartarus. The main circlet this time is made of metals from Tartarus which have been heavily alloyed with other metals from Tartarus, with the same case for the second circlet soldered on the outside and the reinforcing ring visible on the outside.
Pearls and a few round precious stones with soft edges (all of these on the lower edge of the crown though) have all been welded and soldered onto the upper and lower edges, with the lower edges worked over and over to give the wearer a perfect, comfortable, painless fit when the crow is put on the head of the wearer.
With that crown, there was no doubt about the figure really was. The one person no one had expected.
(( *"Cyber Shredder Theme", uploaded to Youtube by user Il-ONAGA-Il, begins here. Repeat if you have to. Music ends at end of chapter.*))
At that point, the six demigods all realized the shocking truth. The figure that Piper had seen rocking on the chair on the porch of the Typhon Cabin, who Leo had seen on the green, who Bryce saw outside the Big House and then as he was walking towards the Hermes Cabin and then spoke with later that night; the figure that had helped them in escaping the Harpies that Aeolus sent to kill them and had fought Areti..
..had been none other than..
..the Monster King.
To be continued..
(A/N: Remember when I said I had some characters from Book One that I wanted to introduce but didn't feel like that the part I was putting them in felt right? Now.. they are finally making their book debut!
Also for the asterisks I put for the weapons, they are the following as described below:
*- falx: a weapon with a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge used by the Thracians and Dacians. (Roman era)
**- Wakizashi: one of the traditionally made Japanese swords worn by the samurai in feudal Japan. Its name refers to the practice of wearing it inserted through one's obi or sash at one's side.
***-khopesh: an Egyptian sickle shaped sword that developed from battle axes.
****- Pata: a sword originating from the Indian subcontinent, with a gauntlet integrated as a handguard. Commonly called a gauntlet-sword in English.
*****- Aruval: a type of billhook machete from Southern India, particularly common in the Indian States of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is a type of long sickle with a knife-like scythe-handle.
So yeah, some more weapons just to show how the Monster King connects the monsters of many different civilizations and religions together. Will elaborate more on our mysterious newcomers next chapter. Until then, hope you enjoyed Part One of this two parter!)