February, 2011
Apollo finds Heartbreaks to be either the best time you've ever had or insufferable whiners.
There is no in between.
What a generalization, Apollo!
Okay, yes, he hears you, Dear Reader, but listen to the facts before you pass judgement.
Their start, for starters. The entire species only exists because Aphrodite can't handle rejection like a grown up. After the overabundance of tragedies she has cursed upon Apollo over the millennia, he feels relatively justified in wondering why she cannot just put her big girl toga on and get over it like everyone else.
And, listen, he understands that the children of Heartbreak themselves don't necessarily control their mother's actions, but since when has that truly mattered when dolling out punishments on Olympus? Sure, for the first thousand years, Aphrodite's little rejects were hardly different from any other monster, but the sheer NUMBER of them! Whew, Apollo thinks she's lucky that Vulcan didn't lose his cool sooner than Rome.
The god of the Forge really gets a bad rap for that, doesn't he? Apollo isn't sure he finds that fair. Gifting Emperor Tiberius with magical restraints to enslave your wife's bastards may be considered extreme in some circles, but that was hardly out of the ordinary as Olympian revenge plots go. It certainly didn't warrant the 500 years Hephaestus slept on the couch afterwards.
But. Apollo digresses. The point is, he thinks cordolia became much more tolerable once there was a leash on them. Gods of Olympus, he remembers the glory days of Rome when shackled wyverns would lead Legions into battle. When every feast had the entertainment of Gifted pixies, and every Emperor rode into the city atop loyal cordolium swans the size of elephants.
The aid of the Weaponesses of Rome expanded the Empire's territory like wildfire. Their servitude brought about a golden time of wealth and prosperity. It seemed quite a good thing that Vulcan had done when he provided the tools to bring purpose to such barbarians. Apollo truly never saw the harm in it.
Until Achillea.
Mortal Heartbreaks had never been a consideration. He'd simply never thought about them. For hundreds of years, they'd blended into the masses of Greece, trying their best to avoid detection lest they face Hephaestus' wrath or be accused of carrying a curse. Apollo had met a few, sure. He'd more than met a few others (if you catch his drift). But, for some reason, thoughts of an emperor Gifting something human...Something thinking. A demigod.
He didn't even consider it until the day that little girl was carted into the throne room.
Apollo has made a few poor choices in his long life. That - not heeding Herophile's warnings until it was too late...That will always be one of his greatest regrets.
That is the reason that he hesitates in his response to Nero's demand. Juliette Aster bears no striking resemblance to the Siren of the South. She's impressively tall while Achillea was petite. Her body is strong and nourished where Achillea's was slight and dainty. Her chin is high and her demeanor uniquely defiant. Her eyes are green rather than brown, and they hold a fire in them that, by her age, had long fizzled out in her predecessor's.
Apollo hesitates, it's true. It never feels good to make the same mistake twice.
But, he is out of options, and she isn't his child.
There is only one choice. Apollo's only consolation is that, from the way Juliette Aster is staring into him right now, he doesn't think she'd let him choose anything different.
December, 2010
"I told you not to follow me anymore."
Juliette closes her eyes and lets just about every profane word she knows screamo yell inside her brain. She's bilingual and knows a few in Spanish, Italian, French, and Latin too, so it takes a little bit. Eventually, an impatient Meg McCaffery is prodding at Julie's back with the pointy ends of two golden swords, and Julie is forced to turn around or be poked full of holes.
She smiles casually down at her sister despite her rampant heartbeat.
"Meg!" She greets.
Meg narrows her eyes. She's in street clothes for the first time since Julie met her, clad in a nauseating mix of bright yellow tights, fire engine red sneakers, and a green tank dress. Her black bob is somehow cut even more horrendously choppy. But, ridiculous outfit or no, there's danger in her expression that has Julie swallowing nervously around a suddenly dry mouth.
Juliette glances between the girl and the open window behind her. She bats her eyelashes.
"You're totally right - this was so rude of me. I'd be glad to head out now and be out of your hair," Julie offers. When she starts to take a step out of range, though, Meg's blades slash to either side of Juliette's throat. She winces.
"Nero wants to see you," says Meg. She looks a bit irritated about that.
Julie laughs nervously. "Y'know tonight's not really good for me-"
"Are you going to walk yourself, or do I need to cut off your other leg too and drag you there?" Meg asks dryly.
Oh, wow.
This kid is something else.
Julie's mouth hangs open at the threat. "Damn!"
"Move already," snips the girl, nudging Julie with a blade. She nods at a door that must lead to a room behind the main dais. "That way."
Juliette looks over, cringes, and shakes her head. "No, I think I'm good."
No secondary location, ladies.
"Go."
"No thank you."
"I will stab you!" Meg shouts, looking visibly ticked off.
Julie just crosses her arms. "Who says I'd let you?" She challenges. "I told you, Meg, I don't want to fight you. I will if I have to, though."
Meg opens her mouth to snap back, but another voice interrupts her.
A voice that sends a cold sweat down Juliette's body.
"I don't think it needs to come to that."
Both of them turn to the dais.
Julie isn't sure what she was expecting to see when she imagined meeting Nero, but eight children with sharp weapons wasn't it. Not to mention the two hulking bodyguards on either side of the emperor, both standing at least two Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnsons tall and carrying weapons made for fully grown cyclops.
The emperor himself is (ever so shockingly) wearing a purple three piece suit that's two sizes too small. She didn't think he could get any uglier, but that was before she saw him in person. Julie wrinkles her nose at the sight of his mustard yellow pocket square and then runs a finger over the arrow charm on her bracelet. She raises her eyes fearlessly to his.
"Nero, right?" She asks.
The question makes him chuckle. That chuckle makes her want to bury an arrow in his face.
"It is good to finally make your acquaintance, Juliette," He remarks.
Nero steps ahead of his line of child soldiers to stand only feet in front of her. Probably to show what little threat she poses at the moment. Julie narrows her eyes, painfully aware of how much the odds have shifted from their arrival.
She is very very outnumbered.
"I've seen you watching our little palace lately. And, I've been watching you in return for quite a while, you know," Nero says, smiling at her. "Do you know why?"
Juliette tries to keep from looking at the open window in the back of the room. Maybe it's still an option for escape.
"Got a thing for teenage girls?" She taunts.
Nero throws his head back and laughs. The kids behind him shuffle uncomfortably. Meg is looking at her in bewilderment.
"Oh, my dear, I am certainly glad keeping you obedient will be my colleague's problem, not mine," He smirks.
That smirk deepens when his eyes very obviously run the length of her body, lingering on the skin above the dip in her sweatshirt like he's wondering what's underneath. Juliette fights the urge to pull her jacket closed around her. She raises her chin high and stares him down until he finishes tracing her curves and looks her back in the face.
Nero grins at her stubborn expression. "I can't say I'm not disappointed I won't get more time with you, of course."
Fuck. The direness of this situation is starting to sink in. She needs an opportunity to transform without one of Meg's swords slicing her open. She needs to get out of here.
Julie can't stop her fingers from trembling, so she stuffs her hands into the pockets of her letterman jacket. She doesn't know what to say to that. For once, her snark is failing her. All she can really think right now is that she is so fucking glad Jason is safe in California.
She's also gaining a new appreciation for winter clothing.
Nero steps up closer to Julie. It's not particularly intimidating because she's an entire head taller than him, but his proximity makes her skin crawl. He smells like dust poorly masked with expensive cologne. His too pink tongue darts out to wet his lips, his gaze running slimy trails up and down Julie's face as he tilts his head to speak up at her.
"I've hoped to have you in my care for a very long time, Juliette," Nero states. "In fact, I came very close a little over six years ago. At least, I believed I did. Do you remember?"
Juliette frowns, and the emperor tuts.
"I suppose you wouldn't have been aware. By that time, Kronos had already gotten his hands on you. He had better intel than I did," Nero sighs. "All I knew was that Philip McCaffery had spawned himself a cordolium. I didn't realize he had hidden it."
Meg jerks. The motion makes her sword cut into Julie's neck a bit. The older girl hisses in pain, and something apologetic flashes across Meg's face before she seems to remember their situation. The young demigod returns her now shaking weapons to Juliette's throat, but her attention is on Nero.
Waves of confusion and heartache are flowing off of Meg's skin. Julie gobbles it down greedily, letting it cool the white hot fear pumping through her system.
Julie stares down at Nero defiantly, trying to channel her scariest, Nico-est glower. "You snooze, you lose, I guess. I was a popular kid."
"Indeed," Nero chuckles. "For good reason."
He raises a hand to Meg, and the swords at Julie's neck are sheathed in an instant. The girl is immediately at his side, one of his disgusting hands clasped on her shoulder.
"As you can probably guess, a Heartbreak is not what I found when I sought out Philip McCaffery. No, I got Meg instead," He looks down at his ward. "No offense of course, Meg, dear. It's worked out quite wonderfully, I believe."
The little girl doesn't respond. She's too busy staring at Juliette.
Nero laces his fingers together and rests them on his chubby belly. "Anyway, I would say we've wasted enough time chatting, wouldn't you?"
He turns to Meg. Julie takes that opportunity to size up the three kids blocking her escape window. She can probably take them. They look, like, ten.
"Meg, lovely, secure our prisoner for me, would you?" Nero requests happily. "Use the special cuffs today."
That sounds like something Julie really doesn't want to be here for. So, she throws out a fist to punch her little sister right in the neck. Meg hits the ground, choking, and all Hades breaks loose.
When eight feral children and two trained barbarians all leap at Juliette as one, the only option she really sees keeping her in one piece is turning into her wyvern. She does, and it's effective in throwing her attackers off of her limbs and into the walls around them, but fighting indoors - in a glass skyscraper - when you're the size of a school bus is kinda hard. Especially when you're trying your very best to keep from seriously injuring anyone.
Julie can do some morally questionable things, but there's no way in Olympus she's going to kill a child. No matter whose side they're on.
The buff bodyguards are fair game, though. Julie strikes the male with her fangs and tosses him right through a window to fall 98 stories to the concrete below.
The female barbarian apparently doesn't appreciate that. She roars in outrage and hits Julie over the head with her crossbow. It dazes her. Juliette stumbles backwards and ends up right in the path of the arrows that three of Nero's kids just released. They bury themselves into her wings, and she cries out in pain.
Julie could swipe at them. She has room to slice them with her talons or throw them through the window like the last guy.
But, they're babies. Even the ones who look barely younger than she is. She just can't do it.
So, instead, she makes for the windows herself. Julie's willing to take some scratches from breaking through the glass. She just needs to get out of here before things escalate further.
She doesn't make it halfway there before the next round of arrows pierces her back leg, and she has nothing on the other side to catch herself with. Juliette goes down. Hard. The whole building shakes with the force of her weight shattering the marble tiles.
Crap, that freaking hurts. But, she needs to fly out of here. Get up, Aster.
Julie scrambles back up onto three legs. A weight lands on her back, though, and something heavy crashes down onto her head.
Stars burst in Julie's vision. The world turns black for a second, and then she's falling forward. She doesn't even realize she's turned human again until her forehead collides with the rubble on the floor and doesn't cause another earthquake.
A boot stands firm on her back, pinning her to the ground. Nero's laughter splits the air.
It's deep bellied. Like this is the funniest thing he's seen in a long while. He claps a round of applause and approaches her prone form.
"Thirty whole seconds!" He cheers boisterously. "How very impressive. What a fierce warrior you are."
Julie is never in too much pain to be petty. Even with three arrows in her arms, two in her calf, and a definite concussion, she manages to turn her head to him and spit blood at his shoes.
Nero actually squeaks in alarm when the glob of saliva starts burning through the toe of his dress shoe. He scrambles to take it off and toss it away. When he looks down to scowl at her, Julie is smirking around the heavy breaths she's strangling into her lungs. The boot on her back digs more aggressively into her spine.
Nero sneers at her. "It's a good thing that attitude will not be a problem much longer."
The emperor gestures Meg forward. It's not until now that Julie realizes the girl to be the only one in the room who hasn't attacked her yet.
That's probably about to change.
Her little sister obeys the command. She steps up to stand beside Nero, towering over Julie's bleeding form.
Oh, gods, Julie's bleeding. Jason's jacket. She's going to burn it.
Is it pathetic that that's the thought that finally springs tears to her eyes?
"Cuff her," Nero demands.
His voice startles everyone in the room. Even Julie. Something has changed in his face, and there's malice dripping from his every word.
Julie's worries about her jacket get addressed fairly quickly. Two of the demigod children kneel beside her to yank the arrows out of her arms. She cries out, and the shock of it distracts her long enough for them to wrestle her jacket and sweatshirt off of her, leaving her pinned under the bodyguard's boot in just her bloody, melting pink tank top.
Julie turns her eyes to Meg. The girl is pale, and her hands are shaking when they reach into the pockets of her dress. Julie's expecting her to pull out a pair of handcuffs or something.
She doesn't. She withdraws something much worse.
Meg crouches to her knees, Tiberri donum in both hands, and Juliette's nerve finally slips away.
"Meg," She breathes, starting to tremble. "Don't."
Meg flinches. One impatient tap of Nero's foot, though, and she's setting one cuff on the floor and reaching for Juliette's left arm.
Julie has never lost her cool in front of the enemy before. Better to die with her dignity intact if it's a fight she can't win.
This is different.
This is so different.
If those cuffs end up around her arms, everything is over. Julie will be worse than dead. They'll use her. She'll hurt the people she loves. She can't do that. This is different. This is so different.
"Meg, please!" She gasps. Meg turns her eyes away. She grabs Julie's elbow and lifts it to access her bicep. The gold brushes frigidly against Julie's skin, and that's enough to break her.
Juliette screams. She thrashes. She sobs. Her hand ends up slamming into Meg's face, rebreaking her nose and sending a few rhinestones clattering from her glasses to the floor. It takes three more of Nero's soldiers and the female bodyguard's other boot to hold her down so that Meg can secure the first cuff around Julie's arm.
The sound of it clicking shut is deafening. Worse, even, than the fire-like agony that burns up her shoulder and down her spine when the axe carved into the gold shines a bright red, and the metal begins fusing with her skin.
She feels like she's losing another limb. The pain is so disorienting, she forgets to struggle anymore. The demigods restraining her barely have to shuffle her around in order to retrieve her other arm.
It's probably only about ten seconds of getting her situated for the next cuff, but Julie manages a prayer to every Olympian and a handful of minor deities. It's embarrassing. She's so embarrassed.
But, she's terrified, and she doesn't know what else to do.
Juliette is still crying and squeezing her eyes shut when Meg picks up the second cuff. She hears it and senses her cloud of regret shift from one side of her body to the other. Meg's grip is more gentle than the others' as she lifts Julie's right elbow up.
Julie doesn't know what's going to happen when that second cuff closes. She never looked into it. Proserpina warned her, and Juliette didn't listen. She was too busy wallowing in her losses from the war. She's ruled by her emotions.
Every hero has a fatal flaw. She's never been special.
Any second now, Juliette could be erased. She could be empty. A vessel to be directed. So, she spends her last few thoughts praying to Thanatos to end her life now so that Nero can't use her to hurt her family.
She just doesn't want to be used. Please, Gods, if she can't be saved...someone kill her.
Meg's effort to clamp the second cuff down onto her bicep is interrupted when every window left in the room shatters.
Juliette's eyes snap open. A force knocks Nero's forces off of her. She sees Meg go flying and get knocked out against the dais. The other kids who were holding her end up in a dogpile at the entrance to the room. Nero and the female bodyguard are on their feet, but barely. They're being slowly scooted backwards by the powerful winds blasting a winter storm through the Tower of Nero.
There's a roll of thunder, and Juliette manages to struggle to her hands and knees. A familiar face comes to stand guard in front of her.
Julie's jaw drops.
"Tempest?!"
Juliette doesn't speak horse like Percy, but she's pretty sure that ventus just smirked at her.
Nero lets out an enraged roar, face turning purple and spittle flying as he shouts over the winds. "CUFF HER!"
No thank you.
Juliette tries standing, but there are still arrows in her good leg. Holy fuck, that hurts. Why does everyone always aim for the ankles?
Tempest gets impatient with her. He nips her sharply on the shoulder, making her yelp, and then phases his body through to lift her off the ground and onto his back. Julie darts her hand out to grab Jason's jacket on her way up, and then Tempest takes off for the clouds.
Nero's cries of rage echo all the way down the block. It doesn't matter, though. Tempest is going too fast for any of them to catch her.
She's in the sky. That means she's safe.
"Good boy..."
The pain in her body shuts down her mind, and Juliette passes out against the horse's silver hide.
All Julie wants for Christmas this year is a night's rest without dreams.
Even unconscious, she's exhausted. Everything hurts, but there's nothing quite like the rippling trail of fire burning across her upper left arm and down her spine. Julie takes deep breaths to keep her vision from blurring.
She's too scared to reach up and touch the shackle still stuck around her bicep.
"It's my time, my love," A voice whispers.
Juliette notices her surroundings. She's standing in a bedroom. The furnishing is simple. Modest. Seeming to be handmade and painted just like the walls of the small home it's in. Lying on the bed is an elderly woman with a long grey braid over one shoulder. Her face is round and kind, affection sparkling in her slightly sunken eyes.
This woman was once exceptionally beautiful. She still is. Even on her deathbed, the first thing Julie notices are her smile lines. They deepen as she gazes up at the man by her bedside.
If Julie hadn't spent the last six years learning to hate it, she probably wouldn't have recognized Mr. D's face behind the wrinkles and long, grey beard. There's no mistaking, though. That is the god of Wine. And, he's breaking apart in this mortal woman's hands.
"It can't be," Dionysus sobs. "I'm not ready. I'll send for Apollo. He'll give you a few more years. Whatever is wrong, it can be fixed-"
"Dionysus," The woman stops him by pressing gentle fingers against his lips. The god crumbles. He pulls her palm in to press a long, lingering kiss to her lifeline. Then, he folds inwards to bury his face in the old woman's shoulder and cry.
Julie stands watching from the same place she first appeared. Stunned.
This isn't the man she knows. He should be tossing Diet Coke cans at pigeons, not actually grieving for the end of this mortal woman's life.
She doesn't know what to do now that she's been reminded that Dionysus was once mortal too.
The couple on the bed is distracted by a bird soaring through the open shutters to land on the headboard. Not just a bird. A dove.
The old woman raises a hand to gently stroke its wings, and the dove drops a small scroll onto the pillow. Dionysus snatches it up and tears away the pink seal. His eyes rake down the page, widening more the further down they get.
Julie leans in in intrigue. So does the woman.
"What is it, dear?" She asks.
Dionysus looks up from the parchment. Tears are still flowing freely into his beard, but a smile flickers across his face as well. He reads the note aloud.
"'Even the most Ancient of Laws may be bent to the power of Love. It is, after all, the oldest of Olympian domains.
The endeavors of any who calls his or herself a Lover shall hold my eternal blessing.
-Aphrodite'"
He gently lays the note down on the covers beside the old woman. Her eyes are wide now too. Tears are gathering in the corners of them. Dionysus collects them on his finger and leans in to press their foreheads together.
"My love," He says shakily. "I know you have made your peace with Elysium. If that is where you wish to go, I would never prevent you from it."
He brushes aside a strand of the woman's hair.
"But, if you wish to stay...to share eternity together in Olympus rather than the Underworld..."
Dionysus gazes down at his love. Her wide brown eyes gaze back.
"You could do this?" She asks quietly.
He nods. "For you, I would do anything."
Her tears begin to fall again, and Dionysus leans in to press a gentle kiss to her lips. When he pulls away, his cheeks are wet as well, and there's barely restrained desperation in the way his free hand is gripping the sheets.
"Please, Ariadne," He whispers. "Let me keep you."
Ariadne takes him in. She thinks it over well. Then, slowly, a smile blooms on her withered lips.
"Okay," She nods.
A sob of relief bursts from Dionysus. He lunges back down to kiss her again, passionately this time, and Juliette watches, transfixed, as purple light shines between them bright enough to cast the whole cottage in wine-tinted illumination.
When the light fades, the god looks a lot more like how Juliette knows him. Mr. D is about fifty pounds lighter and twenty years younger, but his features are properly punchable again. Or, they would be if it weren't for the tearful smile splitting his face as he cups the cheeks of a young, beautiful woman with long brown hair.
She shines with his same purple light. A glittering newborn goddess. And, strung from the lifeline of her palm to the lifeline of his is a golden strand of light the width of a fishing line.
