Ice sculptures are heavy.
"Juliette?!" shouts Jason from across the room.
She waves a hand at him over the block of ice on top of her. "Down here!"
Julie hears him let out a surprised little laugh as he hurries to her side. Moments later, the sculpture is being lifted off of her like it's made of air and she's hauled to her feet. Jason fixes her with an incredulous grin and puts his hands on her shoulders.
"Are you okay? How did you do that?!"
She leans on him heavily as a bout of dizziness wracks her. "I'm good. Whew! Man, I have no idea. It was cool, though, right?!" Juliette laughs and lifts a hand to smooth down his hair. Apparently, he had a wrestling match of his own, seemingly with a tornado.
He grins at her. "I did a little freelance cowboy work."
"Yeehaw?" Julie quirks an eyebrow.
"Yeah, uh, that was pretty awesome, you two!" Leo yells over, his circular saw still sparking off the bars of Hera's cage. "Can you do it again?! I can't get this ice she put here to melt!"
"On it!"
Jason keeps his hand on her lower back as they rush to Leo and Piper's side. Piper's still speaking in soothing tones to the tendrils that make up the cage, trying to convince them to take a little break after working so hard to hold in such a rude and nasty goddess. Leo's got a saw (which is being powered by the wind horse?) hacking away at the outermost tendrils, finally starting to make a substantial dent in the defenses. Between said bars, though, is a layer of ice that Khione slapped up offhandedly when Hera shot off her mouth a little too much. Julie sets her eyes on that.
She lifts her hand to the ice and winces. "Okay, this might not be as easy now. Freezing her took up almost all of whatever weird power she accidentally gave me. It may take a while."
Just as she finishes her warning, the floor rumbles.
Before their eyes, the giant's spire cracks apart on the other side of the room and then erupts. Jagged pieces of rubble rain down throughout the Wolf House. Jason throws up a wind barrier last second to keep them all from getting crushed. Nobody is relieved, though, because there's a shape rising from the wreckage.
Porphyrion the Giant King is straightening up to tower over them, cracking the stiffness out of his massive joints. He's the largest creature Juliette has ever seen, big enough to cross the whole mansion in a step. Powerful muscles arc across his limbs. His long green locs stretch down to his elbows, similar to Purple Aster's. But, his are decorated with bronze and gold weapons. Swords, battle axes, arrows...souvenirs from fallen heroes. Fellow demigods.
Julie feels like she's going to faint.
"Leo," Jason chokes beside her. His voice startles her out of her stupor.
"Huh?" Leo grunts.
"You guys keep working. Get Hera free."
The request makes Julie whip her whole body around to face him. Piper does the same.
"What? What about you?" asks Piper. "You can't possibly-"
"Entertain a giant?" Jason finishes. "I've got no choice."
"W-Wait!" Julie panics. "But, you'll-"
Jason grits his teeth and turns away from them to head towards Porphyrion. Julie lunges out to grab his hand. She chokes on her words.
Fear.
Earthshaking, overwhelming terror. Powerful enough to light mini matchsticks all the way up her body. Jason is absolutely glowing with it.
But, he turns and gives her an encouraging smile, and it's nowhere to be found in his face. "I'll be fine. Keep trying to break that ice." He squeezes her hand, and he's off.
That idiot. That stupid, self-sacrificing, wonderful, selfless idiot. Gods, Julie's going to kill him if he lives through this.
With a new sense of urgency, Julie drops to her knees beside the cage and presses her snowflaked palm to the slat of ice beside where Leo's working. She pushes all of the energy she has left into it, drawing all the power she can from the fear of her friends around her.
It's working. Slowly. But, she can feel the ice starting to thin beneath her fingers. All Jason has to do is hold out for a few minutes. If they can get Hera free, she can finish this.
Porphyrion laughs behind them, a booming sound that shakes the building on its foundations. Julie forces herself not to turn around as she hears the giant address Jason.
"Outstanding! So, Zeus, you sacrifice a son to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."
Juliette presses harder into the ice. Her hand finally breaks through, and the first slat shatters. Hera gasps dramatically from the inside of the cage as if she'd been suffocating.
"Finally! Can't you demigods hurry your pace? We're cutting it rather close!" scolds the goddess.
Juliette rolls her eyes. "Can't you just say 'thank you' for once?" She grumbles, moving on to the second of the three slats she'll need to break. Leo shifts to make room for her, eyes narrowed in focus.
"For real, lady, we are saving you, y'know." He mutters.
Hera huffs.
"If you knew who I was," Jason calls up to 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 about to send you right back to Tartarus."
His voice is low. Dangerous. Like a wolf's snarl. It sends shivers down Juliette's back.
It doesn't seem to have the same impact on Porphyrion. The Giant King laughs. "So, we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphyrion, King of the Giants, and I have risen from Tartarus to begin a war with the gods. A war I have started by stealing Zeus' bride. Hello, Hera."
Hera spits down onto the floor of her cage. For once, Juliette wants to cheer her on.
"My husband destroyed you once, you cretin!" growls the goddess. "He'll do it again."
Porphyrion chuckles, and the floor boards rattle beneath Julie's feet. She squints in concentration. Halfway through slat #2. Just keep it up, Julie.
Jason and Hera yell taunts and threats to the Giant King. They don't seem to phase him. A gasp from Piper between her soothing charms for the tendrils draws Julie's attention, and she looks back to see a crowd of monsters appearing at Porphyrion's feet. All with their eyes set on Jason.
A panicked little whimper escapes Juliette's throat. She squeezes her eyes shut and shoves her hand through the ice slat. It shatters, and she moves on to the final piece.
"Hurry up!" Hera snaps.
"We know!" spits Leo.
"Go to sleep, cage," Piper begs, voice quivering. "Nice, sleepy cage!"
Juliette glances nervously over her shoulder and watches Jason, unarmed but shoulders squared, start to summon the winds around him.
"I am the son of Jupiter!" He shouts. The air around him swirls, his blonde waves fluttering around his head as the sky lifts him up in its embrace. Lightning crackles through the breaks in the ceiling, illuminating the sharp angles of his face. Julie's only seen his eyes hardened like this once before. All those years ago. In a rainstorm in the dark on the night that they met. Standing over a defenseless girl in the shadow of a monster. When he had something to lose. Something to protect.
She didn't know he would feel that way about them after losing his memories.
"I am a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion." Jason announces coldly. He thrusts out his forearm and brandishes the tattoo marked there.
Or...? Does he remember? Julie's mouth is hanging open. Her mind is buzzing blankly as she watches the giant falter at her friend's words.
"I slew the Trojan sea monster. I toppled the black throne of Kronos and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands." Jason narrows his eyes. "And, now, I am going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed your remains to your own wolves."
She-
Uh...
Hmm...
How do you-?
How do you breathe? Breathe, Julie. Remember to breathe. Yes, very good.
Dumb, choked sounds are coming out of her throat now. She's too entranced to even be embarrassed. Her friends are distracted as well.
"Dude," Leo breathes, wide eyed. "You been eating red meat?"
Rather than answering, Jason throws himself forward and attacks.
Juliette frantically turns back to what she was doing, chastising herself for getting sidetracked. The sounds of combat are like cheese graters on her eardrums as she does her best to push down her fear and zero in on breaking this last slab of ice.
"Hurry up, you useless children, the boy is in danger!" Hera urges anxiously.
None of them snap at her this time. Honestly, the concern for Jason in the woman's voice is almost touching enough to cancel out the name calling.
A crash of thunder shakes the building as lightning flashes the room a bright white. All of their hairs are standing up. Everyone's anxiety triples.
Julie gets done first. Her hand punches through the last slab of ice just as Leo is starting on the final tendril he needs to cut to release Hera. Without hesitation, Julie whirls around to take in the combat situation.
Thank gods she did. She locates Jason just in time to see Porphyrion raise his spear above the boy's head. A terrified gasp burns her throat as she rushes towards them.
"You want to play with lighting, boy? You forget, I am the bane of Zeus!" He smirks around his smoking braids. "I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you!"
Jason's still kneeling, seemingly too fatigued from the lightning blast to dodge the incoming strike. Julie slams her boots into the floorboards as the giant's spear comes down towards him.
She makes it just in time. Julie lunges forward and collides with Jason, snagging him around the shoulders to pull him along with her. The two of them roll sideways into a heap as the floor where he'd been sitting gets crushed beneath Porphyrion's weapon. Tangled together, they both stare in horror at the spot Jason had almost become a pancake.
"Got it!" comes a shout.
The two of them look over to the cage as Leo reels back in triumph, and the bars explode outwards. The stone crumbles to dust at the feet of the Queen of the Gods. As the mud slides from her figure, Hera stands, growing to full height and shimmering with Olympic power.
"Yes!" She gasps in relief, throwing off her black robe to reveal a brilliant white chiton and gold jewelry. A shining golden crown manifests on her temples, and Hera smirks around long ebony bangs. "Now, I shall have my revenge."
If "uh oh," could be personified, that's what Porphyrion looks like.
He freezes, wide eyed, gapes like a fish for a moment, and then slams his spear, butt down, into the dirt. His body crumbles down like he's "noping" down into a trap door, and he's gone.
The monsters aren't though. They're advancing on Julie and Jason's prone forms. Hera takes notice.
"Cover your eyes, my heroes!"
Cover your...? OH, CRAP!
Jason looks just as confused and dazed, so thank gods Julie happens to glance at him before closing her eyes. Seeing his bewildered face, Julie pulls him down and blocks his vision with her shoulder. She buries her own face into his neck in return and shuts out the blinding light as Hera's form goes supernova.
Once the shouts of surprise and pain from the monsters whittle down to silence, Julie peeks an eye open. Since she doesn't immediately burn to death, she figures it's over and releases Jason as well. He draws back and looks down at her.
"What in Jupiter was that?!" He asks in horror.
Julie can't hold back a snort at the amount of monster dust caking his face. She reaches up with a thumb and wipes cat whiskers into the coating on his cheeks. "She exploded. Don't worry about it. All good."
"Huh?"
A groan echoes through the room, and they look over to see Thalia stirring. Jason gasps and leaps off of Juliette to rush to his sister. Julie follows close behind and helps him sit the older girl up.
"Are you alright?" Jason frets, pressing a palm to Thalia's forehead worriedly. The Hunter bats his hand away.
"'M fine," She mumbles, cracking her neck. "Just feel like I've got a major case of brain freeze." She lets Jason pull her to her feet and accepts the shoulder Julie offers for her to lean on. Then, Thalia narrows her eyes on the newly freed Hera. "Ugh. Welcome back, Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon. You gonna get kidnapped every century?"
Hera tuts in offense and crosses her arms. "That's it, Thalia Grace! I will turn you into an aardvark, so help me-"
"Stop it, you two." Piper snaps. Her charmspeak pulses so powerfully, even the goddess snaps her mouth shut.
Julie makes a mental note never to annoy Piper when she's grumpy.
"Now," Piper addresses the goddess sternly, wiping her palms on her jeans. "Hera - Your Majesty - we never would have rescued you if not for the Hunters. And, Thalia, you'd...we'd never have met Jason if not for Hera. So, make nice. We have more important things to worry about."
Damn. Julie's gonna set Piper on Mitchell next time he refuses to be on garbage duty.
Thalia smirks. "You've got spirit, Piper." She pulls a gleaming silver business card from the pocket of her parka. "You ever wanna be a Hunter, give me a call. We could use you."
She turns and offers one to Julie too with a raised eyebrow. Julie takes it and flicks it rudely into Thalia's face. She rolls her eyes and tucks it back into the pocket it came from.
"Fortunately for this Hunter, you have a point, daughter of Aphrodite." sniffs Hera. "I was unsure if you were enough for this mission. Now, I see I was right. You are stronger than I realized. And you are correct about the dangers to come. We must work together."
Piper goes pink and takes a flustered step back. Julie crosses her arms.
"Oh, we're 'good enough' now, are we?" She snips.
Hera turns to glare at her harshly. "You are lucky to be standing here in once piece, Heartbreak. You are not one of my chosen, and I have seen the damage you caused to the Western Winds. Be thankful I am not allowing my husband to smite you in his ire."
Thalia grips a protective hold around Julie's middle, but the younger girl is unfazed. She just crooks an eyebrow at the goddess. "Oh, please. If Zeus wanted me dead, he'd have done it anyway. He's never listened to you before. But, he couldn't care less what happens to the minor gods."
She looks up expectantly.
Yup. No thunder.
She points upwards with a smile. "See? Not a rumble. We're chill, me and him."
Hera looks ticked off. She opens her mouth to retort, but Piper steps forward again.
"You guys! Please!" She groans.
Leo steps up too. "So, uh, I don't suppose that Porphyrion guy just melted and died, right?"
"No," Hera sighs.
What follows is a long winded, way too filled-with-obnoxiously-big-words explanation that basically boils down to: "Giant not dead. Y'all are gonna fight him and Gaea soon. Go home and prepare. Also, Jason, I kidnapped you as a baby."
By the time the goddess is done talking, Julie's so tired her eyes are starting to cross. Thalia takes off to Iris Annabeth with an update. Julie yawns. She figures she oughta give Nico a call when they get back. After all, the search can get called off. They know where Percy is now, so maybe he'll be willing to stop being such a jerkface too.
"You have done me a great service," Hera admits with a sigh. She raises a hand towards the four of them. "I can help you this once. Farewell, demigods, for now."
A gust of wind picks the group of them up, and suddenly, they're back at camp.
Julie usually wakes up beautiful. She has a whole 10 step routine before she goes to bed to make sure of that. Shower, skincare, haircare, sock braids, lip stain, etc. It makes her morning process easy and (relatively) quick.
Yeah, she did none of that last night.
She wakes up sprawled on her bed like a cadaver, hair tangled, covered in dust, stinky, and still bleeding in enough places to have accidentally burned holes into her silk sheets. That's a real bummer. She's kind of upset about that.
Drew and Lacy are staring down at her when she blinks open her crusty eyes with identical expressions of disgust. Julie groans.
"G'morning"
Drew grimaces. "You look like you were hit by a truck."
Juliette snorts. "No. Just a tree. And a giant. And a couple werewolves too."
"And you couldn't rinse off afterwards?" Drew grunts, lip stull curled at the state of her.
"Are you hurt?" Lacy asks worriedly. Julie smiles up at her.
"A little. Don't worry, I'll go see the Apollo kids before breakfast."
"Uh, you aren't going anywhere looking like that." Drew snaps. She throws a towel down onto Julie's head. "Go take a shower. You're disgusting."
"Missed you too, Drew."
"Go!"
Julie rolls her eyes and hauls herself painfully out of bed. She cringes at every pop her joints make. Man, she's sore. Almost falling to your death and then getting slapped around by ogres really uses obscure muscle groups.
She looks over at Piper's bunk and chuckles to see Drew advancing on her as well. Piper's in a similar state to Julie, both of them having been so exhausted they slumped into the cabin in silence and fell asleep the second their heads hit their pillows. She's bent into almost an L shape, hair wild and caked with mud, bottom lip split and painful looking. Drew looks like she's going to be sick as she reaches out with a makeup brush handle to poke at her.
"Wake up, Dumpster Girl!"
Piper grunts and rubs at her face sleepily. She smears a new streak of dirt across of cheek. Then, she realizes who's standing above her and sits up suddenly.
Drew scowls at her. "You're going to make us late for breakfast."
Piper blinks. "Oh. I'll go get ready." She hops out of bed and moves towards the bathroom. She glances back at Drew and Lacy with a nervous smile. "I'm, um...I'm sorry for how I acted last week, by the way. It's good to see you guys."
Without making eye contact, Piper ducks into the bathroom and one of the showers turns on a moment later. Drew stares at the doorway in surprise. Lacy and Juliette turn to grin at her, and she shuts her mouth with a snap and crosses her arms.
She doesn't say anything, though. That's a good sign.
With a fond smile, Julie follows Piper into the bathroom and heads to her usual shower stall. The hot water almost makes her cry with glee. Gods, she missed not being covered in blood.
You really take it for granted, huh?
Julie and Piper part ways once they leave the cabin. Chiron comes to collect Piper with promises of a video call with her father in the Big House. Happily back in her favorite denim miniskirt, Julie heads to the infirmary for an awkward checkup with Austin filled with uncomfortable small talk and leaves with her pockets full of antiseptic and antibacterial paste.
At least they had Barbie band-aids left.
She runs into a familiar face over by one of the tarmac areas and can't hold back the amused grin.
"You're playing basketball?" She asks.
Jason fumbles his dribbling in surprise. He stumbles forward and the basketball escapes, rolling up to the toes of Julie's white sandals. She peers down at it in pure bewilderment and makes no move to retrieve it for him.
He jogs up to her and laughs self consciously. "Yeah, uh...I remembered I'm good at it. Wanted to try it out."
She studies him, a smile growing. "I didn't know that."
Jason blinks. "Oh, really?" He sounds genuinely shocked. "Yeah, I guess I used to play. You never...?"
"No, I never saw you." Julie laughs, hands on her hips. "I don't know absolutely everything about you, Jason."
He flushes and looks down at the ball. "Sure seems that way sometimes."
Julie's heart stutters. She feels herself get flustered and reaches down to grab the ball for him as a distraction. He accepts it from her with a smile and tosses it between his hands.
"I'm starting to remember some things like that." Jason tells her with a grin.
She smiles, nerves fluttering in her gut. "That's great!"
"Yeah," He agrees. He worries at the scar on his lip. Julie tries to look anywhere else. "I don't have much back, but...there's something." He pauses. Julie glances at him. He looks hesitant. "Our...our last conversation. When you told me your name. Before Krios. I remember that."
Julie chokes.
"I told you I'd find you." He laughs nervously and looks down. "I guess, that's what you were talking about, wasn't it? At the Canyon? After you..."
This is a prime opportunity to tease him. But, to do that, she'd have to remember how to speak. For fear of making more dumb sounds that aren't words like the last time he made her heart beat this fast, Julie just zips her lips and lets him keep doing the talking. And, boy, does he talk.
"That first interaction makes a lot more sense to me now. I'm realizing that, before all of this happened, I must have...We were..."
Oh gods, she didn't know a person could turn that color. He sighs in frustration.
"This must have been really hard for you these past few days."
Oh yeah, hard for her. Not for, y'know, the guy whose memories got stolen. This boy...
"I'm just...I'm sorry."
Julie swallows thickly and looks him over. Jason looks genuinely guilt-stricken, head turned down, cheeks red, and fingernails scratching absently at the rubber exterior of the basketball. She shakes her head and an exasperated huff escapes her.
"You're ridiculous, Jason Grace." She scoffs. He looks up at her fearfully before spotting the smile and grinning a bit. She rolls her eyes. "I told you that first night on Festus that I'm not expecting anything from you."
"I know, but-"
"No, seriously, hush." Julie chides. Jason shuts his mouth obediently and nods for her to go on. "You're my friend. My oldest friend aside from Percy. I'm just glad you're here. I never thought that I'd get to meet you face to face."
He nods. Then, dribbles a few times, eyes focused down on the ball. "I like being friends." He murmurs.
Something twists unpleasantly in Julie's chest. She squashes it with intense aggression and keeps smiling, cocking out a hip. "Then, I'm doing a decent enough job at it." She laughs.
Jason looks up at her and finally meets her gaze. Lightning bolts zip down all of her limbs when their eyes connect, and it feels like he's yanking all of the air out of her lungs with his super Zeus powers or something. He gives her an easy smile, holding out the ball.
"You know how to play?" He challenges.
Julie blanches. "Basketball? Are you joking?"
"Does it look like I'm joking?"
"You must be, because I don't know why else you'd be asking me that."
Jason laughs loudly and snatches her hand, placing the ball into her palm and puppeteering her wrist up and down in a crude version of the expert dribbling he'd been doing when she walked up. "Come on, it's not that hard."
"Jason, I'm in wedges!"
"So, take them off."
"I am not putting my bare feet anywhere in this camp, are you kidding me?"
He was not kidding her. He lets go of her hand and the ball, and Julie immediately smacks it downwards into the concrete with way too much force. It bounces up at a shocking velocity, and she squeals in terror, ducking out of the way. She's in wedges, so she immediately trips and almost eats shit on the concrete.
Jason steadies her before she can hit the ground, but that doesn't mean he doesn't laugh his ass off until he can't breathe at her expense.
Julie tries to be annoyed, but she's just happy to see those eyes crinkle again.
Leo's workshop is cool, Julie supposes.
She's kind of confused why it's such a big deal, but, hey - if he's happy, she's happy for him. And they're building a boat! Yay?
No, the real turning point for the night for Juliette happens during the council meeting.
Jason's bombshell is still landing. Emotions are settling through the head counselors like the shockwaves after a grenade.
"Percy's...at the Roman camp?" Butch asks quietly.
Jason nods, a solemn look in his eye.
"So, go get him." Katie says like it's obvious, crossing her arms. Piper huffs to Julie's right.
"We can't. Jason hasn't gotten all of his memories back, yet. We don't know where the camp is."
Julie pauses at that, though, and looks up at Chiron over the campfire. She rolls her shoulders back and sets her expression into a determined line.
"It's on the west coast." She recalls.
The whispering in the group goes silent. Chiron rakes a hand down his face and leans back. "Juliette," sighs the centaur. "You just returned last night-"
"I know." Julie cuts him off. She glances at her quest partners, all of whom are staring at her with anxious frowns. "I can't leave him to do this alone, though. Especially not if he doesn't even know who he is. With my powers, I'm the only one who can find him."
Jason clenches his jaw and rests his elbows on his knees. In the firelight, he looks older. More tired. "Juliette, we don't know what kind of defenses they have. I mean, can you sense people through the barrier here?"
Julie looks down at her hands. She pulls at a loose string on the end of her skirt. Then, lifts her head back up and nods. "I've never tried. But, I could sense him in the Labyrinth. That's gotta count for something."
The group murmurs unhappily.
"So, what, you're just gonna fly up and down the entire west coast until you find him?" scoffs Piper. "That's your plan?"
"No." Julie deadpans. She gestures at Jason. "Hera said he got left at the Wolf House at two years old. He got to the Legion somehow, right? Obviously, the camp must be nearby. I'm willing to bet it's in California."
"That's still the third largest state." Annabeth says from across the fire. Everyone looks at her in surprise. She's stiff. Face unreadable. "You four barely came back when you were together. I don't want you going alone."
Julie nods. "I won't. I'll call Nico."
Clarisse scoffs to her right, and Juliette glares at her. The daughter of Ares raises her hands condescendingly. "What? You're really gonna put this in di Angelo's hands?"
"Why not?!" Someone snaps. Julie's a bit surprised to see it's Will's hackles Clarisse has raised for once.
"I mean, come on," Clarisse scoffs. "He's tough, but the kid shows up to fight and then disappears. Every time. He's not exactly trustworthy-"
"I trust Nico di Angelo." Annabeth cuts in. Juliette relaxes, sending the blonde a thankful look. Annabeth continues to frown, though. "You're still weak right now, though, Julie. I want to find Percy just as badly as you do," She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, clearly fighting with her instincts on what she wants to say. "Take a breather. Stay. Heal. Contact Nico and talk a plan through with him. If everything looks good this time next week-"
They never find out Annabeth's suggestion, because it's at that moment that Rachel Dare pitches backwards in her seat, and the amphitheater is flooded with bitter green fog.
