Julie spends the first few days getting sunburned and failing at meditation.

She tries helping Leo work on building a raft, but she really just gets in the way more than she helps, so he tells her he can handle it himself. Which is probably a polite way of saying she sucks at building things.

So, Juliette decides her time can be well spent trying to somehow contact the Argo II using her connection to Jason. She spends most of her time daydreaming about him, anyway, so sitting on the beach and thinking about her favorite person isn't exactly difficult to do. However, trying to tap into the power Cupid spoke of, to connect it to the Mist like Hazel suggested...that isn't going so well.

Come on, Soldier Boy. Hear her reaching out...Please.

About the twentieth time that Julie groans in annoyance when the chirping of a bird or the splash of a wave distracts her from meditating, a voice behind her almost makes her yelp in surprise.

"Would you tell your creature to cease that infernal clanging?!"

Julie turns to Calypso in annoyance. The sound of Leo's hammer on the celestial bronze they scavenged earlier is echoing across the beach. "Tell him yourself."

Calypso bristles. "I do not wish to speak to him."

"Why? Worried he's gonna seduce you?"

Silence.

Julie snorts. "Oh, he'll try. Doesn't mean you have to fall for it."

"Do not imply I have a choice in the matter!"

Juliette frowns. "Don't you?"

Calypso's face falters. Something pained crosses her eyes, vulnerable and scared. But, her expression closes off immediately after, slamming shut like a steel door. She turns on her heel and makes back for her cave, regardless of the continued clanging in the distance.

Jason's about to have a panic attack.

It's been days since they arrived at the Palace of the South Wind. The venti tell him they're somewhere along the northern coast of Africa, so the wind bomb that went off when Piper took care of Khione must have blasted them all the way across the Mediterranean.

He's pacing the half repaired deck of the ship while waiting to be collected for his daily audience with the Lord of the South Wind when Hazel and Nico approach him.

"Do you see her yet?" Nico asks bluntly.

"No."

"Have you looked?"

"Have I-Of course, I've looked!" Jason snaps. "I told you, I can't sense her. Whatever happened, wherever she is, it's blocking me out."

Nico just scowls at him.

With a look of gentle concern, Hazel steps up instead. "Jason, we're just here to help-"

"Maybe you are-"

"Let's just try it again, okay?" Hazel soothes.

Feeling guilty, Jason takes a deep breath to get his anger under control. With gritted teeth, he stops pacing and turns to reluctantly take the girl's outstretched hands.

She smiles at him. "Good. Now, deep breaths, in and out."

Jason hears Nico snort bitterly off to the side and tenses. He squeezes his eyes shut tighter as the ball of frustration in his stomach grows dangerously hot.

"Just be calm and let yourself connect with the Mist. Lose your form. Let the images play in front of your mind."

The images? Which ones? The ones where Leo falls from the sky, and Jason is too busy being useless to catch him? Or how about the ones where his girlfriend - his best friend - ends up trapped in some screwed up ice-goddess version of the room from that Saw movie Piper made him watch?

Jason feels himself start to shake. He pushes it down. This isn't the time to let his emotions get the better of him.

He's a soldier. He has a duty to perform. And, right now, that's to find their missing crew members.

He and Hazel stand there for at least five minutes, breathing and being silent. Eventually, she sighs and drops his hands. "We'll try again tomorrow," Hazel offers with an encouraging smile.

Jason glares down at the splintered boards of the deck. They're standing over the section Percy and Juliette used to sit at together. He can tell from the many games of tic tac toe between blue and pink Sharpies.

"This is a waste of time," Nico grumbles.

Hazel cuts her eyes at him. "That's enough. It's our best shot."

"I can find her right now-"

"No you can't. Because you are not shadow traveling there alone, and you can't handle taking the whole ship along with you," Hazel states firmly.

Nico crosses his arms. "What am I supposed to do, then? Let her die?"

"She is not going to die. We can both sense that she's alive."

"For now-"

"We're going to finish repairing the ship, and then we'll all go find them together," Hazel demands. "Jason will be able to sense her soon. I can feel the strength of their connection."

Nico scoffs. "Yeah, sure," He glares angrily over at Jason. "Remind me what you were doing when Khione was blasting her into oblivion?"

Jason's fingers spark. The negative feelings in his gut are growing again. He puts all of his strength into keeping them restrained. "It wasn't my fault," He says tensely.

Nico's eyes narrow. He takes a dangerous step forward, and all of the warning bells in Jason's instincts start to blare. His hands twitch towards his gladius as he feels the dark cloud that follows the kid around engulf him. "Well, it wasn't mine this time."

Just like that, Jason's control on his emotions slips away.

Rage, fear, and self loathing all start drowning him. Jason's vision swims with the intensity of the dread that hits him - the terror he's been repressing ever since he watched the girl he loves go overboard. He lets out an angry yell and unsheathes his sword just to slam it into the railing of the ship.

Before the gold can make contact with the wood, though, the world around him rewrites itself.

In a dizzying swirl of colors, Jason's surroundings reconfigure into...a beach?

He blinks in confusion, turning in a circle to make note of his position. His breath catches in his throat at the sight of two familiar demigods crouching beside one another on the sand, peering down at something glinting by their feet.

"So, it's like the magic mirror from Snow White?" Juliette asks. Gods, Jason had no idea how badly he needed to hear her voice. The sound of it nearly makes him fall to his knees.

"Assuming Jason is the fairest of them all, I guess that's kinda the same thing," shrugs Leo.

"Well, it should be perfect, then."

"Gag."

The two of them stare expectantly down at the flattened oval of celestial bronze between them. Jason takes them in with the desperation of a starving man at a buffet.

Leo's wearing a strange style of undyed wool clothing - sort of like a prison jumpsuit. There's ash smeared across his forehead. He's barefoot and looking skinnier than Jason's ever seen him. Concerningly skinny. It causes protectiveness to flare up in Jason.

Juliette is in a similar state, thin and sunburned across her nose and cheeks. There are new freckles on her shoulders that Jason's never seen before. Her purple tank top is singed from the hem to her ribs, revealing a new puckered scar across her belly. She's frowning impatiently down at the contraption, reaching out a finger to prod at it.

"It's not working."

"Give it a minute!" Leo huffs, slapping her hand away.

Juliette rolls her eyes and sits back on her heels. Jason holds his breath as her eyes wander away from Leo's project boredly. She sweeps them over to where he's standing, and-

"JASON!"

He probably should have warned her that he's not really there. Jason reaches out uselessly to his girlfriend as she leaps out to tackle him in her usual aggressive style of embrace just to pass right through him and eat a face full of sand.

"Oh gods, are you okay?!" He yelps, dropping to his knees beside her. The hand he reaches out to place on her shoulder passes through as well. He scowls.

Really? They're back to this again?

"Jason? What? Where?" He hears Leo question. His friend is looking around hopefully, but his brown eyes are passing right over where Jason is sitting like he isn't there.

Juliette groans. "Owww...I'm fine," She sighs, sitting back up. She knocks the sand off her cheeks and grins up at Jason. "How are you here?" She laughs.

Jason shakes his head. "I don't know. Hazel's been helping me, but, this is the first time it's..." He starts to get nervous. Jason leans closer to her, wishing he could just snatch the girl off of whatever random island she seems to be stuck on and take her home with him. "Where are you? How do we find you guys?"

Juliette winces. "I don't exactly know. We're on Ogygia."

"The Island of Calypso?" Jason asks in surprise.

Juliette nods. She gets slightly distracted by Leo's urgent questioning beside her and turns around to snap at the boy. "Leo, he's right here, okay? No, I'm not hallucinating. No, it's not a mirage. Probably."

Leo frowns at her skeptically, and Juliette pushes him out of her space with a palm to his forehead. She focuses back on Jason.

"We're trying to figure a way out of here, but I don't think you can access it from the outside. I think..."

Jason nods at her to go on, heart pounding at the grimace on her face. "What is it?"

She sighs. "I think you should go on without us."

"No way-"

"Jason, I'm serious. I don't know how the passage of time works here. If you wait for us, what if you miss the window to get Percy and Annabeth out of Tartarus?" She reasons. Juliette lifts a hand to Jason's face, passing her fingers through his cheek like she's grandma-pinching it. "Continue the quest. We'll make it out of here and meet up with you."

Jason feels like he swallowed a blender. "How would you find us?"

Juliette smiles cheekily, like they're sharing a secret no one else will understand. She leans forward and gives him a silly nose-nuzzle that makes Leo look nauseous behind her. "I'll always find you, Soldier Boy. I promise."

Jason wants to cry. He doesn't let himself, though. If this is what she is choosing, he'll just have to be okay with that.

The connection wavers, the tropical setting flickering around him. Jason lets out a panicked breath as he feels himself slipping out of her presence.

"I love you," He says quickly.

Juliette grins, and the weight on his shoulders feels like it gets a bit lighter. "I'll see you soon, hot stuff."

The beach disappears with Jason's next blink, and he's greeted by the urgent faces of two children of the Underworld.

"You didn't have to do that, you know."

Calypso looks up from the pot she's stirring and scowls at Juliette. "I do not recall inviting you into my home."

Julie shrugs. "You didn't," She quips. "But, Leo's shirtless and singing some screamo cover of a Taylor Swift song while he works, so the beach isn't an option right now."

She strides over to the other girl and flops down onto the rug beside her. She puts her sandy feet onto Calypso's fancy carpet and takes satisfaction in the irritated scoff that escapes her host. "So?" She says leadingly.

Calypso uses a pair of wooden tongs to pick Julie's foot up by the ankle, dropping it on the stone floor rather than her furniture with a disgusted frown. "So, what?"

"So, why didn't you just kill us and join up with Gaea?" Juliette asks. She smirks at Calypso. "Not that you would've won. You could've at least tried, though."

The older girl rolls her eyes. "Oh, please. I am thousands of years old. If the urge struck me, I could snap my fingers, and you'd be tossed out to the tides."

"Hey, I kind of get along with the tides. I cut him a slice of birthday cake last time he was over."

Calypso does not look impressed. She continues to frown at Juliette like she's a dung beetle on her favorite watering can. "If Gaea wants you dead, she can kill you herself. I am no ones puppet."

"Except Zeus'," Julie shrugs.

Calypso's eyes flash. "Is there a reason you have invaded my evening? Or do you simply wish to harass me?"

Juliette grins. "I can multitask."

Calypso returns to preparing dinner a bit more aggressively than before. Julie ends up wincing in sympathy for the poor potatoes the girl slices like she has a personal vendetta against them.

"Soooo..." She pulls a strand of rosy hair in front of her face, looking at it crosseyed. "In love with Leo yet?"

Calypso lets out an enraged grunt. "You are incredibly annoying, has anyone told you that?"

"Many times, yes."

"Well, it is true."

"So, I take that as a no?" Julie sighs. Calypso stares at her angrily, and it makes her slump. "Damn. Alright, what do we have to do? Leo can be charming sometimes, maybe I should set you guys up a romantic picnic or somethin-"

"Is my situation a joke to you?" Calypso snaps.

Julie crosses her arms. "You want to know what I think?"

"You've volunteered it without my permission thus far!"

"I think you're a whiney little Titan with an inferiority complex," Julie says rudely. "I think you're only still trapped here because you can't bring yourself to move on."

"And what would you know, mortal?" Calypso replies venomously, slamming her ladle back into the pot. "What would you possibly know about curses? About suffering? About being fated for nothing but pain yet being incapable of changing that?"

"You have got to be kidding me," Julie laughs. "You do realize I'm a Heartbreak, right?"

"Yes," Calypso sniffs. "But, I also sensed the vibrations in the Mist yesterday evening. I will not listen to you lecture me on unrequited love whilst you hold the heart of the one you care for."

Juliette groans. "Look, girl, if you just want to sit on this island and throw another thousand year long pity party until the next dweeb in armor washes up, go right ahead. But, Leo and I need to go. So, do you want to come help us build a boat, or are you gonna sit in here and stir your beef stew?"

She watches the other girl glare down at her meal and fidget. After a good few minutes of silence and bubbling, Julie rolls her eyes and gets to her feet. She turns for the exit to the cave. Even listening to Leo run Taylor Swift through a woodchipper is better than this garbage.

"Whatever. Enjoy your broken little heart."

She pushes the curtains aside to step back into the sunlight. Calypso's voice stops her mid step.

"It's not beef."

Julie raises an eyebrow at her. Calypso huffs and pours a ladle full of stew into a bowl. She holds it out to Juliette without looking at her.

"You're a vegetarian. I heard the boy teasing you for not eating. There is no meat in this pot."

Surprised, Julie slowly accepts the meal. She can't help but look at Calypso in a new light as the fragrant smell of rosemary wafts up from the broth. "Thank you..." She mumbles.

Calypso squares her shoulders and meets Julie's gaze firmly. "You are not entirely wrong about me. The idea of leaving my island is terrifying. This has been my home for the majority of my long life. But," She narrows her eyes. "My past experiences with men. The reason I will not stand in your friend's presence unless I must. None of my romances have been by my own choice. To love and to lose, that is my curse. It is my punishment from Zeus."

Oh.

Julie purses her lips, gripping the edges of her bowl tighter from the guilt. "Punishment...for what?"

Calypso laughs, a gleam of empathy - of kinship - in her eye. "For being born."

The face of Julie's mother flashes before her vision. She has nothing to say to that. So, instead, she lets the curtain swing shut again, blocking out the sound of Leo's caterwauling on the beach, and retakes her seat beside the titaness.

Usually, Juliette can't shut up. For once, she and Calypso share their meal in peaceful silence.

"I wish to help."

Leo knocks over the stack of bronze scraps, and Julie gives him a slow clap. He glares at her before turning back around to Calypso. "Dang, Sunshine, don't sneak up on me like that," He laughs nervously.

She looks a bit apologetic. Then, she gestures at the parts lying on the sand behind him. "I wish to help," She says again.

Leo blinks dumbly. "Uh...Like, with the boat?"

"Yes."

"Oh...you do?"

Julie laughs brightly and hops off the boulder she's perched on. "You sure, buttercup? You might have to get your hands dirty," She smirks.

Leo looks at her like she just started speaking Russian. "You cried the last time you broke a nail building the Argo."

Julie shushes him angrily. "Would you let me look like a bigshot for once?"

"A big shot? You're already huge!"

"You had better be talking about my height, or we're about to have problems, Leo."

"So, you wanna help?" He squeaks, turning sharply back to Calypso. "You could make us some sails."

"Hey, I'm making the sails-"

"Sails that work."

"What?! Why wouldn't these work?!"

Calypso nods, a smile pulling at her lips. "Indeed. I take it, you would prefer them without the gaping holes along the seams?"

Leo gives her a thumbs up as Juliette sputters and starts frantically checking the sheets of fabric she'd been sewing together.

"Why didn't you say something hours ago? I've been working on these all day!"

"I did! You said, 'blah, blah, blah, can't hear you,' and then made armpit farting noises at me."

"Well, I didn't know you were saying something important!"

"I'm just going to take the materials and go," Calypso says awkwardly. "There will be more stew for you both at sunset."

Leo gives her a bright smile that makes the girl turn red and spin around quickly before scurrying back up to her home at top speed. Julie shakes her head as she goes.

Oh, dear. This could end up interesting.

Watching Leo flirt with girls is pretty standard most days. Watching him have an honest to gods crush on a girl is weird. Especially one who is thousands of years older than him and focused on keeping their contact to an absolute minimum.

Julie ends up as the sort of middle-man between Leo and Calypso, volunteering to haul meals and new clothes down to the beach and supplies for sails and rigging back up to the cave. Calypso spends most of the day spinning fabric and ropes on her loom so they can be added to the chunk of wood that is starting to kind of look like a boat (Leo says trust the process) down by the shore.

It takes them about a week, during which Julie basically just collects pretty seashells and breaks the tension between Leo and Calypso when the girl does come down to help them construct things from time to time.

Leo is smitten. Every time a breeze blows the titaness' hair from her shoulders, or a comment he says makes her laugh everything about him lights up. It's sort of adorable. So much so that Julie finds herself cursing Zeus even more than usual for what he's put Calypso through that's made her look so afraid to see fondness in the smile of a boy as sweet as Leo.

Julie starts feeling like a relationship counselor by the end of their stay on Ogygia. A few nights before they think they can set sail, Leo and Julie are laying on their backs in the sand, looking up at the constellations and wondering aloud what they think the crew might be up to.

"I bet Piper's crying," Leo grins.

"Why would you say that so happily?"

"Because! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that hydra hog. I bet I get the gnarliest birthday gifts this year."

"She is rich."

"Yeah, but she's the kind of rich that pretends she isn't rich."

"Nico's got an infinity card."

"WHAT?!" Leo yelps. The volume of his voice must irritate Calypso, because she peeks from around her curtain with a stern expression that makes him grin and wave at her. Julie's got an eyebrow raised when he turns back to their conversation, making him flush. "What?"

"Bad Leo."

"What?!"

"She's thousands of years old. And also cursed."

"So? I mean 'whatever are you talking about?'"

Juliette rolls her eyes at his innocent smile. "Leo, how many times are we going to go through this? You can't just fall in love with every girl we meet."

He frowns at her. "She's not 'every girl.'"

"No," Julie agrees. She glances at Calypso's cave. "She's a super complicated one. And also too old for you."

"She's sixteen!"

"Biologically! But, she's been on this island for longer than even your dad has been alive! And, she's not really able to control her own feelings at the moment."

"I know," Leo grumbles. "I'm not gonna do anything, don't worry. She's just cool to be around."

"She is," Julie nods.

There's a moment of silence between them. Then, they look at each other as the melodic sound of Calypso's singing floats down to them from the cave.

"We're not leaving her here, right?"

"Hades no."

"What?"

"To come back. I didn't mention that part?" Leo grins.

Calypso looks between them, hair tied back with an oil stained rag and soot smeared cross her pale cheeks. She looks bewildered. "Why would you come back?"

"To get you, obviously," Julie replies. "That is, if you're ready to be free, after all."

"Ready to be..." Calypso is blinking rapidly, focus swiveling between her two guests like a bobblehead. "Why would you do that?"

"Well, I can't exactly start Leo and Calypso's Auto Repair Shop without Calypso, can I?" reasons Leo, his smile splitting across his face.

"It's about time you got a chance to figure out the world for yourself, Cal," Julie says. She rests an elbow on Leo's shoulder in solidarity. "And, maybe if we get you off this island, you'll believe me that black does not pair with beige."

They smile together as tears start rolling down Calypso's cheeks. "You-" She lets out an ugly sob, hiding her face behind her hands. "Why would you come back?" She asks again.

Julie sighs. She and Leo glance at each other before approaching the sobbing girl slowly. Once they reach her, there's no hesitation in the way Calypso melts into their little group hug. "I know you've had a couple boyfriends over the last thousand years," Julie says sympathetically. "But, when's the last time you had a friend?"

Calypso's head buries further into Julie's shoulder, her arms tightening around both of the demigods as they smile at each other like stupid kids.

"No need to cry over me, Sunshine, I'm not gone yet," Leo winks. Julie flicks him in the forehead.

Calypso laughs tearfully and pulls out of the embrace. "Thank you," She whispers.

There's a change in the winds: one smelling of clean animals, of fresh soil, of mourning flowers, of clear summer breezes, and Piper's lilac perfume. When Juliette turns to follow its path, there's a wooden raft large enough for two people sitting innocently on the shoreline.

Calypso gasps. "Hurry!" She darts around them and snags the sail post in the center of the rectangular pallet. "I do not know how long it will stay!"

"That's the magic raft?" Leo asks, looking a bit unimpressed.

"Yes. And, you must board it now."

Julie and Leo follow her directions. each clinging to the center post as Calypso pushes the raft into the waves for them. She wades out until the water reaches her waist, still holding onto the edge of the raft, and looks up at them with reddened eyes.

"Remember me?" She requests.

Julie feels her heart break for her new friend. She lets go of the post and drops to her knees to embrace the girl again, uncaring of the salt water soaking into her hair as she leans down. "We can do better than that, buttercup."

"We're coming back for you, Calypso," Leo vows. He tugs her into a hug as well and whispers something. Julie doesn't catch it, but whatever it is, it makes Calypso's eyes bug out and fill with a fresh round of tears.

The son of Hephaestus pulls away from the hug and drops a kiss onto the titaness' cheek before unwinding her hands from the edge of their raft. "Bon voyage, Sunshine!" He calls as they float away. "I'll see you soon!"

Julie wipes away her own tears as she watches Calypso wave at them until she's nothing more than a pinprick on the horizon. Once the island itself disappears and it's just Leo, Juliette, and the open water, she turn to him with a raised eyebrow. "What'd you say to her?"

He smiles to himself, still facing the direction Ogygia disappeared in. "Eh. Nothing worth repeating."

Julie's expression must look adequately doubtful, because he giggles impishly and pokes her in the shoulder.

"Now, go call Superman with your freaky love powers. Let him know we'll race him to Epirus."

Julie swallows.

Epirus. Doors of Death, here they come.