Helping out around the infirmary turns into full time training with the Apollo cabin. Michael Yew is a strict teacher, quick to roast her intelligence into oblivion when she makes stupid errors, but Juliette actually appreciates the abrasiveness. He's difficult to impress, so the rare nods of approval when she wraps an Ace bandage correctly or hands him the right tools first try mean all the more. Lee Fletcher is softer with his corrections. He always pairs his direction with an encouraging smile and applauds loudly the first time Julie does adequate stitches (he had her practicing on the Stolls to teach them a lesson). She isn't completely clear on why they wanted to teach her in the first place, but she's not complaining. Learning to heal takes focus, and it's keeping her mind off of Annabeth's quest.
The group has been in the Labyrinth for almost two weeks when they get their first update.
"Why don't we all learn this?" Julie asks Lee distractedly. She's using tweezers to pick splinters out of a Hephaestus kid's bicep. She glares at her patient in frustration. "Would you please relax? The more you flex, the deeper these things go."
The Hephaestus boy (Tom? Thomas? Something like that) smirks at her. "I ain't flexing, honey. They're just that firm." He says with a wink.
Lee smacks the kid on the head with his paperwork. "Tim, no flirting with my apprentice. She's thirteen." He addresses Julie again. "And, kid, I've been saying that for years. Maybe if a first-aid course joined the camp activity rotation, I'd get my 8 hours more than once a month. Mr. D isn't interested in making any changes, though. Plus, I'd have to teach it." He sighs. Juliette frowns at the shadows framing his eyes.
"Maybe I could eventually help out for real? I'd take a shift if that would help you guys." She offers.
Lee smiles at her warmly. "Right now, let's just focus on skills you'll need in the field. If we've got a fight coming up, we'll need medics in action."
Almost immediately, Will and Michael come charging into the infirmary, pale faced. Julie's stomach drops.
"What is it?" She asks urgently.
Michael swallows. "Mount St. Helens." His voice trembles. "It just exploded."
Chiron hushes the frantic voices bouncing off the columns of the dining pavilion. Every eye in camp turns to him, the nervous energy so palpable, Julie's pores feel like they're vibrating. He clears his throat.
"I assume you have all heard about the explosion in Washington. We have dispatched protectors in the area to investigate and report back to us with any pertinent information. I do feel it is fair to inform you," He pauses. "We have had reason to believe this is the location of one of Hephaestus' private workshops. It is likely, in my opinion, that the explosion may have been caused by an attack of Kronos' forces."
Luke.
Julie squeezes her eyes shut against the flash of green that threatens to tint her vision. The crowd mutters unhappily. The son of Hermes' name is uttered a few times.
"Why would they be after Dad's workshop?" Nyssa asks. Beckendorf sighs.
"'Why wouldn't they be' would be a real question. With the right hands to work it, one of those forges could make anything imaginable. Any weapon of destruction. Any method of transportation. You name it. If Luke has control of one of those, that's a big problem." He declares.
Silena shifts uneasily next to Juliette. She goes to grab her older sister's hand comfortingly, but Silena snatches it away. Hurt pricks at Julie's chest. She ducks her head to hide it, following the motion through like she was just stretching.
Smooth, Julie. That didn't look forced at all.
Chiron nods at Beck gravely. "Yes. We should hold a War Council tonight. Head counselors, please meet me in the Big House after dinner."
The crowd starts to disperse to their own tables, and Julie turns to ask Silena if she's alright. By the time she turns around, her sister's dark hair is already disappearing into Cabin 10.
Annabeth gets back two days later. Alone.
Juliette's helping Will stock the temporary infirmary when she comes stumbling from the Labyrinth. They rush to her side without a word between them, laying her down on one of the cots and immediately beginning to treat her wounds. She isn't too badly harmed - just a few scrapes and bruises. A broken arm. She has some burn and claw marks down her legs, but seems alright internally. Except that she won't stop crying.
It isn't until she's folding down the last corner of Annabeth's final bandage that Juliette realizes the extent of the emotions she's been absorbing during the healing process. Like a fog has been lifted from over her mind, they hit her now at full force.
Guilt. Terror. Self-Loathing.
Anger. Sadness. Loneliness.
Horror. Desperation. Grief.
Grief. Grief. Grief.
She stumbles back. Her back knocks into a supply crate. It starts to tip over until Will catches it.
"What is it?" He asks worriedly. Julie's eyes are unfocused and wide, staring at Annabeth in terror.
Annabeth cries harder.
Juliette finds her voice. "What happened?" She asks softly.
Annabeth just sobs. Anger starts to bloom in Julie's chest. She strides up to the cot and snatches the blonde by the shoulders. Will yells in surprise behind her. Juliette ignores him.
"What. Happened."
Grey eyes finally meet hers, bloodshot and still spilling tears.
"The explosion...I tried...to find him. I think-" Another broken sob tears from Annabeth's throat. Juliette can feel the world spinning on its axis. She turns on her heel towards the Labyrinth. Will jumps in her path.
"Woah! You cannot go in there. That is a horrible plan." He warns frantically.
Juliette can feel her rage growing. Scales start to poke at the skin around her eyes. She faces Will, but addresses Annabeth with her next question.
"Where? Where is he?"
Annabeth sniffles. "I don't know. I couldn't find him." She says weakly. Julie turns back to look at her,
"So, he could be alive." She snaps. Annabeth looks at her helplessly.
"I don't know! I've been looking for him, but the Labyrinth...it just changes. I had to leave, or I'd have died down there too-"
"So, you left him down there?!"
Will grabs Juliette's shoulder. "Hey, that's not fair. You've seen the film of that explosion - How could she expect him to make it through that?" He defends. Julie shrugs him off.
"She left him! And what about Grover and Tyson? Where are they?" She snarls.
Annabeth clamps her mouth shut, sending out a pulse of shame that makes Juliette's blood boil. The daughter of Aphrodite barks out a cold laugh.
"Some quest lead. You went in with three friends and came out with none. Incredible. No wonder no one ever trusted you with this before." She snarls. Her words shatter something in Annabeth's eyes. Strength flood's Juliette's body. Will glares at her in frustration. Julie doesn't care. She pushes past him, snatching up a go-bag from the supply pile, and marches her way into the Labyrinth alone.
Because she is not telling Sally Jackson that her son is gone until she knows it's true herself.
Most kids at CHB know the story of the Labyrinth: Daedalus' imprisonment by Minos, Poseidon's curse that bore the Minotaur, the rumors of dark magic and imprisoned souls residing in the passages to pull unaware travelers down to Tartarus. It's a place of nightmares, a jinx made stone.
So, Juliette feels a little weird about how at home she feels inside it.
From the moment her teal converse touch the stone, a sense of calm rushes through her. The rampant anger burning a hole through her heart cools to a faint sizzling. She has to stop herself from closing her eyes in bliss. It's like the walls are draining her power, but in the best possible way. It feels easier to control.
Her mind focuses, and she starts her trek forwards.
It's easy to retrace Annabeth's steps at first. There's a pretty obvious trail of blood from where she passed through on her way out, so Juliette zeroes in on that. When she's been walking for about an hour, dodging traps and vaulting pits, the trail cuts off abruptly. The seams of the floor stones don't match up anymore. The oxidation level on the walls and ceiling is greater than the previous sections.
'The Labyrinth...it just changes,' Annabeth had said. Of course, Julie knew this in the back of her mind, but she hasn't been thinking much about how to combat that. Now, she realizes, it's probably a fairly important thing to plan for. She stops to think.
When she's transformed in the past, there have been changes to her senses. Every sight and scent is stronger, like usual with most animals. However, there's also another sense that she doesn't have in her human form. She's never considered how to utilize it. Maybe now is a good time.
Juliette opens the backpack she'd grabbed and takes inventory. A handful of power bars. An entire square of ambrosia. A small canteen of nectar. Three large bottles of water. A stitches kit. Ace Bandages. A box of Band-Aids. A bottle of peroxide. Gloves. Gauze.
Okay. She can work with that. If this goes badly, she'll have plenty of ambrosia to charge back up with.
Julie slings the backpack on so it'll melt into the transformation with her (don't ask why that works, it just does). She breathes out steadily through her nose. Okay. Snakey time, please, she pleads with her body. After a moment of concentration, she feels the shift happen.
When Julie reopens her eyes, her line of sight is about 15 feet higher. She immediately bonks her cobra head on the ceiling and lets out a hiss of pain. It's fuzzy, but she can feel that sixth sense kicking in. Her instincts start pulling in two directions. Both feel familiar.
She focuses on one. The presence to her right burns hot. She brushes against the feeling with her consciousness, and images appear in her mindscape.
A kind face stares down at her, a hand resting on top of her head. He smiles and the scar down his cheek puckers. "Good job, squirt. I knew you had it in you." He ruffles her hair affectionately and turns back to his men.
Juliette feels Chris' hands on her shoulders. He's gripping hard, but his fingers are trembling. Her eyes float down to the pile of dust on the deck. Her hands feel sticky. She wants to go home.
Julie's winged form stumbles back a few paces. She shakes her long neck to rid herself of the memory. Fear settles cold and deep in her gut.
Definitely not going that way.
So, she turns to the other. She doesn't tap into the pull. It feels cooler than Luke's presence. Strange and deep. Fitting, she supposes. Percy was born of the ocean after all.
The passages of this section of the Labyrinth are getting too tight for her in her transformed state. Traps are harder to dodge and anticipate. Her serpentine tongue flicks out every so often, scenting the air for monsters. It's been quiet for a while. Somehow, that makes her more uneasy.
Julie's getting tired, too. She won't be able to hold the transformation much longer. Percy's presence is closer now, but it's moving. Quickly.
Is he running?
She sets off at a gallop. He's getting too far from her. An axe swings suddenly in her path, and she narrowly dodges it, heart in her throat. She's forced to stop as she takes in the passageway before her. She's standing in a large circular room with six different narrower tunnels around the diameter. The one she was blindly rushing towards has a depressed tile in front of it where she'd stepped. As she watches, the axe that swung is drawn back into the ceiling, the pressure plate rising to be level with the floor in a metallic clank and a hiss of steam.
There's no way Julie can fit through there in her beast form. Frustrated, she takes one more note of the direction the familiar presence is moving in, and lets herself shrink back down to human form. A flood of exhaustion almost knocks her to the ground. Her vision goes black, her knees threaten to buckle, and a faint ringing pierces her eardrums.
Dang. She's never held her transformation that long before. Note to reader: please read side-effects before engaging in polymorphism.
Julie sinks down to the ground to collect herself. She rips open the backpack, tears off a chunk of ambrosia, and shovels it down. It tastes like instant mac and cheese. The radioactive looking microwavable kind that she and Percy always sneak from his kitchen in the middle of the night. It makes her eyes burn.
He better not die. She'll be so pissed at him.
Juliette swallows back the tears and half a bottle of water before she starts hearing a commotion down one of the other tunnels. Julie freezes and listens closer. Footsteps - a whole group's worth of them - come echoing down the corridor in her direction. Indecision tears at her.
She feels stronger. But, she's alone. If she came down here impulsively and can't handle the fight, she will be remembered as the stupidest person to die at CHB ever. But, if she turns around, Percy might get too far away for her to sense while she gets reinforcements. This Labyrinth connects the entire world. If she loses him now, he could end up anywhere. And who knows how injured he is?
The footsteps get closer, and Julie pushes the decision-making backwards in her schedule. Behind "hide behind wall so they don't see you." As the steps enter the circular room, a familiar voice reaches her. She grits her teeth and huddles against a bend in the wall out of sight.
"Ugh, I hate this place!" Kelli whines. She stomps into the room with two Laistrygonians flanking her. "You dunderheads are sure he came this way? This stupid maze is blocking even Big Three stink."
The Laistrygonians both grunt affirmations. Kelli stops in the center of the room. She gestures at the different pathways in impatience.
"Well?" She snaps. The giants don't respond. She turns to them with a scowl. "Which one?"
Silence.
"Ugh!" She screeches. "You morons are useless! He's a Son of Hades! How hard can he be to sense?!"
Julie has to hold in a choked gasp. Son of Hades? There's a Son of Hades down here? So, they aren't looking for Percy?
"This kid had better be worth it. Luke is going to pay for putting me on babysitting duty." Kelli grumbles. "Now, call our source to find out where he went, or I'll send you both back to Tartarus myself!"
Juliette's too in her own head to pay attention to their response. Another Big Three kid? Now that Thalia's in the Hunters, Percy's been the only one in the running for the "Olympus to preserve or raze" thing. If there's another forbidden kid, and Luke gets ahold of him...
The presence she'd felt is down the corridor that's on the other side of Kelli's guards. There's no way she can get over there without being caught. Julie clenches her fist around her water bottle. She's going to have to find another path to Percy. This isn't a fight she can win.
She turns around to leave and walks right through a teenage boy's chest.
A strangled yelp escapes her. She scrambles away, steps on her own shoe, and falls backwards into the chamber. Right at Kelli's feet.
"Oh, Gods, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to-...where even are you right now?" A male voice rambles out. Julie lifts her head long enough to glare heatedly at Soldier Boy. He has the decency to look sheepish.
Kelli's face appears in her field of vision. She looks mostly confused. "Well, hello there. Again." She tilts her head and frowns at Julie quizzically. "Are you trying to get captured?"
Why was that question worse than a death threat? Julie's cheeks burn. She scrambles to her feet.
"No! That wasn't the plan anyway." She cuts her eyes at her invisible companion. He grimaces apologetically.
Kelli cocks a hip. "Well, I mean, I won't turn down another prisoner." The empousa bares her pointed teeth in a grotesque smile. "You feel up to coming quietly, little murderer?"
Julie hides her flinch with a thoughtful hum, pretending to think it over. She shakes her head. "No, I don't think so. Gonna have to rough me up a bit, I guess." She shrugs.
Kelli smirks. "I can do that." Under the cheer uniform, her body starts to shift, her legs changing shape.
Julie panics. On impulse, she spits out, "Is that a new top, Kell?"
Kelli pauses. "Oh, this?"
As soon as she looks down, Juliette flings her water bottle with all of her strength. By Apollo's grace, it soars in a perfect arc, smacking down right between Kelli's eyes with enough force to knock her backwards onto the stone floor.
Neither Juliette or the Laistrygonians move for a beat. They all seem to be in shock that that actually worked. Then, Soldier Boy shouts "Go!" and Juliette makes a break for the correct tunnel.
Thanks the gods for cheer agility. When one Laistrygonian takes a swing at her, she drops to the floor, baseball sliding under its arm. The moment she's on her feet again, giant #2's fist is coming right at her head. She throws her weight backwards and it soars over her as she vaults into the clumsiest back handspring of her life. Coach Terrance would be making her run laps for that.
"Get her, you idiots!" Kelli is getting to her feet now - her donkey/bronze feet, that is.
Julie sprints for the corridor. The Laistrygonians roar in rage behind her. Heavy footfalls follow in pursuit.
"JUMP!"
Juliette doesn't question Soldier Boy's order. She leaps as high as she can right as a club the size of a fourth grader smashes into the tiles right where she'd been running. Rubble explodes from the impact. Her feet come down on slippery tile shards, and she loses her balance, landing hard and rolling until she comes to a stop resting on her forearms.
She looks up at her pursuers. Kelli is smirking, approaching her slowly like a wolf stalking its prey. There's a goose egg growing where the bottle hit between her eyes. Good. Julie hopes it bruises too.
"Just give up, sweetheart. Let's end this, alright?" Kelli cackles like a witch, and Juliette's stomach turns.
She starts to slide her hands back to push herself off the ground when she feels part of the floor give under her weight. Wait. Julie taps a fingernail against a section of unbroken tile. It springs a little beneath the force. She smirks.
"But, we're having so much fun!" She calls back breathlessly. Knees aching, she sits up, trying to subtly look around the room to iron out her plan. "And we've almost gotten to the part where you brag about your fantastical plans. How is the ol' captain doing?"
She's stalling. Even the Laistrygonians know it.
Kelli rolls her eyes. "Boys, grab her already, will you?"
The giants reach down for her. Welp. Here goes nothing.
Julie slams her hand down on the tile. It pushes inwards, and a metallic clank rings out behind her. Juliette flattens herself against the floor just in time for a roaring jet of flame to shoot inches over her body. It engulfs both of the giants, who begin to scream in agony. Kelli manages to dodge the worst of it, skreiking profanities in Ancient Greek as she slaps at the flames on her skirt.
Somewhere in the room, Soldier Boy bursts out laughing. Actually laughing. Julie thinks that should piss her off, but it actually makes her crack a smile herself.
The flames die down, and Juliette leaps to her feet. Now successfully extinguished, Kelli charges after her. Julie feels the empousa's claws rake across her shoulder. They begin to close around the side of Julie's ripped camp shirt, but are suddenly yanked away.
Without breaking her stride, Julie looks over her shoulder. Kelli is sitting, dazed, on her butt as a comically large rubber hammer retracts back into the threshold of the corridor Julie's racing through. Just before she turns the corner to freedom, Julie catches sight of the boy from her dreams staring in intense concentration at where his flickering foot is depressing a tile on the floor.
She runs for at least ten minutes before she finally feels safe enough to stop. She's passed enough traps and turns by this point to at least have a decent head start. Julie leans heavily against the wall, trying to catch her breath. She's covered in scrapes from her fall, and the claw marks on her shoulder are already bleeding enough that her shirt sleeve is smoking.
She swings the backpack off and is about to pull out more ambrosia when she hears a shuffle around the corner. She freezes.
There's no way they've caught up to her already.
Silently, she rezips the backpack and slings it onto one shoulder. Screw this. She's running again.
Before she gets the chance, though, a hand darts out from the shadows and grips her arm with bruising strength. The hand slings her sideways into the wall. Before she can cry out, a tip of cold iron presses sharply against her throat, and she takes in the gaunt face of Nico di Angelo.