"Nico?"
The boy blinks in surprise and the sword leaves Julie's throat. "Juliette?"
She lets out a breathless laugh and moves to embrace him. He jumps back like she'll burn him.
Wait, she's bleeding, so she probably would. Oh, right, she was doing something. Stupid ADHD.
Julie pulls her gaze from her friend's face and slings the backpack back onto the ground. She unzips it and pulls the canteen of nectar out. Nico watches her tensely.
"What are you doing down here?" He asks. His voice is harsh and quiet. It makes her flinch.
Juliette glances up at him. He's glaring at her. Gods, he's so thin.
She shakes it off and starts pouring a bit of nectar onto a gauze pad. "I'm looking for Percy. What are you doing down here?" She replies.
His cheeks color a bit, and he glares harder. "You shouldn't be here." He snaps.
"Mhm. I'm aware."
"Then leave."
"No." Julie pulls the sleeve of her camp shirt up to her shoulder and presses the gauze to the claw marks. It stings for a moment, and then she feels the skin start to knit back together. She sighs in relief.
Juliette lifts her eyes to meet Nico's once again. It's like there are steel shutters behind those brown irises. She can't get any reading off of him. Not even an aura. It makes her powers squirm uncomfortably in her gut. And, it makes something click in place in her brain.
"You're being followed." She warns him. He tenses. "There's an empousa, Kelli. She said she's supposed to capture a Son of Hades." Nico's face darkens, but Julie pushes through. "She mentioned a 'source.' Someone told her where you were."
He studies her suspiciously for a second. Then, his grip on his sword tightens, and she notices a frustrated gleam in his eye. "Minos." He mutters.
"Sorry?"
A cold breeze comes wafting from the direction Julie had run from. Her backpack is being roughly shoved into her arms a moment later.
"We have to go." Nico barks. Julie ignores the stinging of the cuts up her arms and slings the bag back on.
"Go where?" She asks.
"Anywhere else." He says hurriedly. He snatches the strap of her bag and starts dragging her after him, picking up to a run within a few steps. She stumbles along behind him. "If he tricked me, we need to get out of the Labyrinth."
"But-what about Percy?!"
He stops. For the first time in the interaction, he looks like the scared kid he should be. "We don't even know he's down here anymore..." He says uncertainly. "If Minos tricked me, he could have lied about that too."
Julie steps up to him with a hard look in her eyes. "I can know for sure. I have a power I can use to find him. I just need to rest first before I can do it again."
He looks at her with a clenched jaw. "Are you sure?" He asks.
She nods.
Nico sighs, but nods back. "Okay. I think I know somewhere we can stay safe for a while. But, stay on alert."
"Alert is my middle name."
Nico knows a lot of curse words for an eleven year old.
Julie's tiptoeing along behind the son of Hades as he practically spits acid under his breath. She's feeling sort of awkward. The same kind of awkward she feels whenever Percy and Annabeth really get into it - only this time the argument was between her ex-friend of a week who she just found out can summon the dead and a demon cattle-hand apparently employed by said friend's estranged godly parent.
She decides to take in their surroundings instead. Nico said they were entering the Underworld when they went through that metal door in the Labyrinth, but this just looks like a regular old farm. The sky is dark, but it's not too much different than if it were nighttime. And if the stars didn't exist. Okay, never mind, they're clearly in the Underworld. It just doesn't feel as weird as she expected it to.
"Sooo..." She trails off. He doesn't even glance at her. "What, uh, was that guy's problem?" She asks with a nervous chuckle.
Nico glances at her. "He doesn't like me." He states. He keeps walking.
Oh, that was it, he's just done talking. Okay.
"Why not?" She prompts. He stops and looks at her like she's stupid. Is she? Did he already tell her? That's embarrassing. She should stop talking now.
"How long do you need?" He asks. She blinks.
"For...?"
"Rest." He rolls his eyes.
"Oh! I don't know exactly." She replies uncertainly. He glares at her.
"You 'don't know?'" He snaps.
Juliette raises her hands in surrender. "Look, I'm new to this! Plus, time passes weird in all these different places. Let me eat and take a quick nap. That'll probably be enough." She reasons.
Nico huffs, but relents, dropping down to lean against the wall of the main barn. Julie gingerly sits down next to him. She pulls two of the power bars from her bag and both remaining bottles of water, offering one of each to him. He accepts them with a hesitant nod and turns back to watch the bright red cattle graze while he rips the wrapper open.
Julie bites into her own, stealing glances at him every so often. He's so...different than she remembers. Angrier. She gets why, she supposes, but it's still shocking to see.
"Where did you go?" She asks gently.
Nico shrugs and takes another bite of his energy bar.
"Were you alone this whole time?"
Shrug.
"How did you even end up down here?"
Wrapper gets balled up and pocketed.
Juliette sighs. "Alright, be mysterious, I guess." She stuffs her own wrapper back into the bag and drains half her water bottle. She sets it down, fluffs up the very lumpy-not-at-all-comfortable medical bag and curls up to use it as a pillow. "I'll figure you out, Nico di Angelo. Mark my words." She promises as she shuts her eyes to sleep.
She swears she hears him blow out sharply through his nose as she drifts off.
Hey, that was almost a laugh.
Juliette has no idea how long she's been asleep when Nico shakes her awake. The sky is the same amount of dark. The only sign there is that any time has passed is the herd of red cattle having rotated grazing pastures.
"Can you try it now?" He asks as soon as she sits up.
Julie closes her eyes and takes inventory. Yeah, she can feel some strength in there somewhere. If she shakes the reserves at just the right angle. Like a nearly empty soda can. She looks up at him and nods.
"Good. Let's go."
He leads her back through the pastures to the entrance to the Labyrinth, flipping a rude gesture at Menoetes on their way past (which he receives in return). They climb back through the heavy metal door and descend into the Labyrinth again. Julie feels her powers connect to the stone once more, but this time it seems to push strength back into her rather than draining it. She sighs in relief.
"Okay, yeah, I'm ready." She states. She turns to face Nico. "You've never seen this before, I don't think, so just...don't freak out." She orders. He blinks at her blankly.
Julie focuses her energy and pictures the shift. Tingles travel across her cheeks and down her limbs, her vision tinting green and her lungs expanding in capacity. She watches Nico's face flash from a mask of calm to surprise, to horror, to wonder, and then back again to calm. When her transformation is done, she's towering over him. The top of his black curls only brush the middle of her draconic torso.
She hones in on that sixth sense as soon as she feels it click into place. The red hot presence she knows to be Luke is in the same place as before, but it's dimming and pulsing strangely. She ignores it and moves to the next.
Julie realizes now that the deep, colder presence she'd been following earlier had actually been Nico, not Percy, as it's now hovering beside her comfortingly. This would make her heart drop, but she's sensing a new presence now.
One that's warm and bright like a summer breeze across the beach. Its familiarity is stronger than the other two. If Julie were human, she'd probably be sobbing on the floor right now.
Percy.
Julie drops to her belly onto the floor. Nico jumps back in surprise. Another major drawback of this power - most demigods don't speak wyvern. And wyverns don't speak demigod. She looks at him in what she hopes is a pointed fashion (her eyes are very far apart in this form, so she's not actually sure if she's looking at him) and swings her head around towards her back.
Get on, she's trying to say.
Nico seems to understand. He doesn't look pleased about it, but he sheaths his sword and places a hand nervously on the joint between her wing and shoulder. When she doesn't immediately snap her teeth and gobble him down, he hoists himself up and carefully settles between two of the spines on her back, leaning forward and grasping onto her snake-like neck to keep from slipping off.
As soon as he's in place, Julie lifts up surges forward. Nico yelps and tightens his arms as she lets out a high pitched hiss that sounds suspiciously like laughter. Percy's presence isn't far. As long as they don't get blown up by traps on the way, they can be there in minutes at this speed.
For once, they get lucky. No exploding traps for them.
Juliette screeches to a stop when they reach a stainless steel hallway. It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie, with artificial lighting on the ceiling and metal pipes lining the walls. The floor is made out of steel grating, which starts getting on Julie's nerves after the third time one of her talons gets stuck between the prongs.
"There." Nico breathes out. Julie looks up from where she's shaking one of the dislodged grates off of her left foot. There's an open doorway up ahead that's glowing dimly. Voices start to float towards them. Voices Julie recognizes. She lets out a hiss of desperation and takes off again, totally obliterating the flooring in her haste.
They burst through the threshold, and there's quite a bit to take in at once.
First of all, mission accomplished. Percy Jackson is, in fact, present. He's standing side by side with Annabeth, both of them protecting Rachel Elizabeth Dare (why is Rachel Dare here?) with their weapons drawn. They're in some sort of workshop with huge windows looking out over a snowy mountain range. Quintus is hovering behind them, pale and angry as he glares across the room at Kelli.
The empousa's face is a complete wreck. The goose egg on her forehead has swollen even more and turned a nasty shade of green. Her cheer uniform is torn and burnt along the edges, and her nose seems to have been squashed flat by that hammer Julie's invisible helper sent in her path earlier (she'll have to thank him for that). The Laistrygonians beside her must be reinforcements, because they're unharmed. Julie doesn't think one can usually be set on fire and walk away unharmed, but it's not like she's an expert. Floating on Kelli's other side is what looks to be a ghost. His wrinkled face contorts into a sinister smile when he lays eyes on them. It makes Juliette's scales crawl.
The whole room startles at their appearance, and Nico takes advantage of the moment to slide off her back, unsheathing his sword. Kelli screams in frustration.
"ATTACK THEM, YOU FOO-"
In one mighty leap, Julie closes the distance between them and chomps her mouth closed over the cheerleader's torso. She picks Kelli up, shakes her like a dog with a bone, and then spits out yellow dust at the feet of the Laistrygonians.
Chaos erupts after that. Both the giants roar and rear back to slam their clubs into Julie's back. Annabeth and Percy release battle cries and intercept one of them while Mrs. O'Leary clamps her jaws down on the leg of the other.
More giants start pouring into the room from seemingly nowhere, and Juliette crashes back into battle. She headbutts some aside while sinking her fangs into others. She manages to reduce two to dust before a third grabs ahold of her right leg, yanking her off balance. It jumps on her back and slams a fist into her cobra head. Julie goes crashing to the ground. She rolls and smacks her back against the floor in an attempt to dislodge the parasitic giant from her, but it doesn't budge.
The fist continues to crash into the back of her head. She's dazed now, staggering side to side as she tries to shake off her unwanted passenger. Suddenly, the weight goes stiff before disappearing entirely. She lifts her head around. Percy's already moving on to another target, but he finds time to throw a scathing comment over his shoulder.
"You're welcome. Good job. You're still grounded, though." He turns his back on her and continues the fight.
Julie's too relieved to see him to care about that last comment.
She leaps in fright as spirits start rising up from the floor of the workshop - shimmering forms that suddenly multiply and solidify into Cretan soldiers.
"I am the son of Hades," Nico's voice declares over the sounds of battle. "Be gone!"
Minos laughs. "You have no power over me! I am the lord of spirits! I am the Ghost King!"
"No," Nico hisses. "I am."
He thrusts his sword into the floor and a chasm tears across the room. Enemy and ally both stagger to a halt to watch the scene as Minos' form ripples.
"No!" He false-king shouts in alarm. "I will not-"
Like a massive, spooky toilet, the chasm vacuums down Minos and the other spirits deep into the void of the Underworld.
Huh. That was cool. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled violence.
Most of the giants have been defeated, the only remaining ones locked into battle with Quintus and Mrs. O'Leary, but there are more footsteps stampeding down the hallway in their direction. Julie moves over to stand beside Rachel, who screams and backs away from her quickly, holding a pair of wings in front of her like a shield. She already has another pair strapped to her back.
Annabeth rushes up and snatches the wings from Rachel's hands. "Calm down, would you? It's just Juliette." She snaps at the redhead.
Rachel's jaw drops. "Juliette? That's you?"
Julie flicks her tongue in confirmation.
"Percy, let's go!" Annabeth orders. He and Nico rush over, each strapping on their own set of wings. The five of them make their way to the windows, and Percy hesitates.
"Daedalus!" He yells. "Come on!"
Quintus looks over impatiently and shakes his head. "I won't leave Mrs. O'Leary! Go!"
Juliette doesn't need to be told twice. She picks Percy up by the back of his shirt and flings him out the window with her teeth. Then, she leaps from the ledge and joins his screaming self in the air.
Flying is Juliette's favorite thing to do. Normally, it comes with a better soundtrack than Percy's horrified screams.
"Spread your arms! Keep them extended!" Annabeth calls from above. Juliette flaps her own wings powerfully, flying circles around the group in case of sudden unintentional descent. She wants to enjoy the flight - the cold wind against her scales and the pleasant stretch of her wings as they propel her forward. The fatigue is getting to her, though. She's not sure how much longer she can keep this transformation up, and she'd really rather not have it fail while she's 200 feet in the air.
Luckily, Annabeth seems to have the same concern about the clay wings. "Land!" The blonde orders. "These wings won't last forever!"
They swoop as a flock over the "Garden of the Gods," as Annabeth calls it, and land on an upper terrace of the Visitor Center. The moment her feet touch concrete, Juliette releases her transformation.
Percy rounds on her. "Young lady, I am so angry at you. I swear, Jules, as soon as we get back to Camp, you're-Oh, you're passing out, okay cool." He squeaks out the last part as her eyes roll back and she slumps forward into his outstretched arms.
Juliette wakes up on Percy's back. She keeps her eyes squeezed shut. Even after resting (does it count as rest if you're unwillingly unconscious?), her head is spinning, and she feels like she's taken one of Drew's acrylic nails to the back of both of her eyeballs. Every joint aches, and the scrapes on her arms are still stinging, though it feels like someone put band-aids on them at some point.
"Thanks for coming after us." Percy's voice says softly. She almost groans a response before she hears another voice reply and realizes the comment wasn't directed at her.
"I owed you for the ranch, Percy." Nico's voice replies. He sounds wary. "Plus...I wanted to see Daedalus for myself. Minos was right in a way. Daedalus should die. Nobody should be able to avoid death that long. It's not natural."
Something tells Julie he isn't just referring to Daedalus.
Quintus. Are they the same person? She's very confused.
"That's what you were after all along. Trading Daedalus' soul for your sister's." Percy surmises. Juliette's heart clenches violently. What?
Nico's silent for a while. Julie's starting to feel wrong about listening in on this, but she's too weak to move. Finally, he speaks again. "It hasn't been easy, you know. Having only the dead for company. Knowing that I'll never be accepted by the living. Only the dead respect me, and they only do that out of fear." He mutters grimly. Julie feels Percy sigh.
"You could be accepted. You could have friends at camp."
Nico pauses again. "Do you really believe that, Percy?"
Juliette feels Percy tense. He doesn't respond for a bit. Just as he takes in a breath to say something, he collides with another figure and jostles Julie enough to pull a pained groan from her.
"What is it?" Percy asks whoever he'd run into.
"Is that the way?" Annabeth adds quietly.
"No." Rachel says. Julie can feel a cloud of fear seeping towards her in the air. "Not at all."
Percy shifts Julie around on his back. "Why are we stopping, then?" He complains.
"Listen." Nico hisses.
Juliette blinks her eyes open blearily to look at the group. She watches all of their faces drop and pale.
"Eucalyptus trees," Percy notes shakily. "Like in California."
When was he in California?
"There's something evil down that tunnel. Something very powerful." Rachel mumbles.
The realization hits Julie like a freight train. The presence she'd felt. Burning hot and powerful. Flickering with something evil. She gasps. All of the groups' eyes turn to her, and she pushes her head off of Percy's shoulder with great effort.
"Luke," She chokes out. Percy's whole body jerks. "Luke's down that tunnel."
Annabeth looks like she's going to be sick. "Mount Othrys. The Titans' palace."
Percy breathes out sharply. He starts transitioning Juliette's gelatin legs to the floor. "I have to check it out." He states.
Julie wobbles where she now stands and grips the back of his shirt resolutely. "Are you crazy? You want to storm the Titan headquarters alone?" She asks weakly.
He turns his head and eyes her. "You're one to talk-"
"Percy, no, she's right." Annabeth cuts in. "That is crazy." Juliette's a little surprised at the support after the way she'd last talked to Annabeth. Nothing like a common enemy - Percy's impulsiveness - to heal rifts in a friendship, though.
"Luke could be right there," Percy argues. "Or Kronos. I have to find out what's going on."
Julie looks down at her palms. She can feel the wrongness in the air like a slimy coat of oil on her skin. "I could feel his presence earlier. It was off. Something is definitely happening." She admits.
Annabeth hesitates. "Then we'll all go."
Percy shakes his head. "No. It's too dangerous. If they got hold of Nico, or Rachel for that matter, Kronos could use them. And there's no way in Hades Juliette's going anywhere near Luke ever again. You stay here and guard them." He says to Annabeth.
"Percy, don't," Rachel pleads. "Don't go up there alone."
Juliette's chest is constricting in panic. She grips onto Percy's t-shirt tighter. He turns and unwinds her hands from him with a gentle squeeze.
"I'll be quick. And I won't do anything stupid." Percy promises. He shoots her a confident smile that doesn't reach his sea green eyes.
Julie blinks back fearful tears. "You're always stupid." She argues. Her voice is trembling in exhaustion and anxiety. He chuckles and shrugs.
"But, I'm still here, right? That's gotta count for something." He laughs.
Annabeth reaches out to pass him her Yankees cap. "At least take this. And be careful." She asks with a worried frown.
The two of them stare into each others eyes for a moment. Then, Percy smiles shyly and accepts it from her. "Thanks," He puts it on and vanishes. "Here goes nothing."
Soft footsteps echo down the hall towards the smell of Eucalyptus.