When Leo, Jason, and Juliette join the battle, they completely turn the tide.
The Argo II blasts apart the ceiling of the ruins, clearing the way for Julie and Jason to sweep down and unleash their fury on the army of re-formed giants below. Jason drops down onto the shoulders of the Giant King, cloaked in electricity and eyes glowing like lightning. He stabs downwards into Porphyrion's neck, and Percy is dropped by the giant to freedom.
Juliette goes for a more widespread sort of destruction. She makes it rain. Makes it rain acid, that is.
Between the torrent of venom spouting from Juliette's mouth and the barrage of arrows Frank lets loose from the high ground, all of the enemies within 100 feet of Percy and Annabeth are crumbled to dust nearly instantly.
But, none of their allies are gods. They can't destroy the giants for good. It isn't long before the enemies are re-forming, so Frank leaps down from his blown cover onto Julie's back, and she soars them both out of reach.
Percy and Annabeth are on their feet. Piper and Jason are back to back, slashing at the constantly rebooting army of monsters. Leo's blasting apart boulders that get lobbed at the Argo II as Hazel tries to keep the crumbling ruins from squashing any of them, redirecting it all to smash through Gaea's forces instead.
They eventually end up congregating in the center of the Acropolis, fighting back to back, Frank firing arrows from Juliette's saddle as she soars in circles over them and slices off giant arms with her talons before their blows can land. The damage they're unleashing is unreal.
They're doing amazing. They're holding their own. It's looking like today might actually be a win.
It's crazy how quickly everything can change.
A nosebleed to end the world. All of that work they did - two whole months - wasted.
The moment the drop of blood leaves Percy's chin feels like it stretches on for lifetimes. Julie doesn't actually see it hit the dirt. She's too busy looking for Jason, stomach rolling in petrifying terror as his gaze seeks her out as well. She watches that plan of his - that dream he just discovered only days ago - flash in the blue of his eyes.
Do you ever have a moment where you look at someone, and it makes you dizzy to realize just how much of yourself doesn't even belong to you anymore?
Julie doesn't know where the Roman Emperors came up with the idea of those golden shackles, but Jason Grace has never needed anything magical to hold Juliette's will in his hands. Everything she is and ever will be belongs to him. She belongs to him, mind and soul. And just the fact that he could never even fathom how much of her he holds in his hands is all it takes to make that hook buried deep inside her heart utterly irremovable.
When the earth awakens, she has landed beside the circle and curled herself around her person. Nothing in the universe matters except keeping him alive.
She's expecting to be swallowed by the ground. Instead, the clouds above the Acropolis part.
Julie looks up just in time to watch an army of gods descend onto the battlefield.
Watching Jason fight back to back with Zeus is simultaneously terrifying and the most impressive thing she's ever seen.
He's completely matching his father's skill. Every time a giant swings at one of them, the other will blast it apart with lightning without even a glance, running off of pure instinct and adrenaline. They're encircled by swirling clouds and raging winds, both sets of blue eyes glowing brightly as lightning wraps around their bodies. Together, they're taking on the King of the Giants, Porphyrion. And, they have him on the ropes.
Percy and Poseidon are definitely the runners up. They're back to back as well, facing off with Otis and Ephialtes, one slashing wildly with a sword while the other twirls a wicked looking trident in a watery vortex of death. They swap weapons often, their wild fighting styles melding together like they had the battle pre-choreographed.
Ares and Frank are harbingers of chaos. The two of them are tearing apart enemies with their bare hands, emanating a red glow that burns blisters onto any giants that get too close. Hazel and Hecate bound through the Mist, setting fire to enemies and skewering them on blades. Annabeth and Athena slice through giants like they're made of butter, and Leo and Hephaestus have already fixed up some of the Argo II's cannons to blast off the heads of whatever monsters they can reach.
Aphrodite is there. She's finishing off every monster Piper slashes with Katoptris, cheering sweet words of encouragement to her older daughter between each burst of monster dust.
Julie knows better than to get distracted in the middle of a fight, but she can't help it. Her mother's eyes are blue again, not brown. And, they haven't strayed to Juliette once.
It's Polybotes' trident tearing a hole through one of Julie's wings that knocks her out of her transformation. She gets slammed into the stone floor, the smallest prong of the weapon still stuck through her right shoulder.
"ABOMINATION!" He bellows at her. Julie cries out as he yanks the trident out of her shoulder and raises it back up to strike again.
She rolls out of the way, and the weapon stabs into the ground. Julie yanks the charm from her wrist and pulls an arrow. The pain in her shoulder is screaming out for attention, but she ignores it even as her armor begins sizzling from the blood running down her back. She looses an arrow into the giant's eye, and he roars in outrage.
Oh, didn't like that, huh? Maybe don't poison Julie's family members next time.
Julie yelps in surprise when the trident swings over her head. She ends up in a backflip, firing another arrow right into the remaining eye of the Anti-Poseidon. It hits dead center in his pupil, and Polybotes staggers back with another cry of pain, blinded.
Holy shit, that was cool.
"Nice shot!" A voice shouts behind her.
Julie looks around for the source, kneeling on the stones with her bow already redrawn.
Before the giant's next angry swipe of his trident can land on her, there's a flash of golden light and a smell like cooking meat. Polybotes screams, and Juliette gapes at the wide hole burned through the giant's sword arm.
"Oh, yeah! That will teach you to go around stabbing beautiful maidens!"
The giant bellows again and retreats a few hundred yards. A hand, glowing like morning sunlight, appears in Juliette's field of vision, and she holds back a groan.
"These giants have dreadful ways with women," sighs Apollo.
Oh, gods damn it. Whatever. Julie doesn't have time to be annoyed right now.
She accepts the hand being offered to her and lets Apollo pull her to her feet. He's blonde, but not Jason's pretty golden blonde. He's, like, yellow blonde. Like Will Solace. He's handsome enough, but remembrance of just about everything he's ever done in mythology sort of overshadows the chiseled pecks he's popping back and forth under his white robes as he smiles blindingly at her. Julie scowls.
Apollo's eyes are the same color as Jason's, but they hold none of the same depth. Really, there's just humor and shallow confidence on display. They focus down on Juliette's chest, and it takes a second to remember she's currently bleeding there and not punch him in the face for being a creep.
"Allow me!" Apollo gestures grandly and winks at her. He kisses two fingers and then brings them down over the bloody hole in Julie's shoulder guard. Instantly, warmth floods her body, soothing the pain and leaving her with a pleasant buzz of energy in her healed limb.
Begrudgingly, Julie nods at the god. "Thanks."
"You are very welcome, darling" He smirks. The giant a little ways away growls in annoyance and starts advancing on them again, and Apollo whips out his own grand bow. "Shall we?" He offers.
Julie nods. "Let's pin the tail on the giant."
All at the same time, Polybotes howls an earsplitting roar, Apollo begins unleashing a barrage of golden arrows, and Juliette shifts back into a wyvern.
Under the cover of Apollo's missiles, she aims for the giant's feet, clamping her jaws around his ankles and sinking in her fangs. The giant's poisonous blood fills her mouth, but it has no effect on her. She yanks her head to the side, and Polybotes is pulled off of his feet to crash to the ground. In an instant, Apollo is standing over him, one foot on his neck and an arrow leveled over his head.
"Goodnight to you, sir!" He shouts with a smile. Before Polybotes can react, he fires the arrow into his head, and the giant collapses into dust. With a satisfied smirk, Apollo turns to Juliette and beams. "Well. That was fun."
A new roar draws the both of their attention, and they're quickly pulled back into combat with a group of cyclops.
She's a little grumpy to admit it, but Julie and Apollo fight well together. It could just be his millennia of experience, but the god seems to anticipate every attack she makes, always covering her blind spots with arrows and beams of searing sunlight. Every injury she takes disappears immediately from her skin, and in return, she ensures that no monsters get close enough to Apollo to throw off his firing rhythm.
It isn't long before every monster within their combat radius is eliminated, and they find themselves turning to watch the final enemy, the King of the Giants, be driven off a cliff by Jason's gladius and blasted to bits by Zeus' lightning.
The silence of the battlefield is absolutely jarring. Julie releases her transformation and drops to her knees to catch her breath, bow in her lap. Her friends are all face to face with their parents, even Jason seems to be having a moment with Zeus. Julie watches Piper glance over at her from where Aphrodite is squeezing her into a giggly hug. Her sister looks annoyed. Sort of guilty.
Strangely, Julie for once doesn't feel envy at the sight of them. She sees Apollo reunite with his twin off to the edge of the group and is actually relieved to have been left alone.
She sits back onto her heels and watches her friends be praised.
She looks down at herself. At her thumbs running gently across the faces carved into the icy surface of her bow.
Good job, Julie, she tells herself.
She smiles a little when the thought actually makes her feel a bit of pride.
"Hey, you okay?"
Juliette looks up and smiles when Jason slows from his jogging pace to lean over her. She nods. "Good. But, I'm pooped."
He huffs a laugh. There's a bloody scrape across his cheek. It's kinda hot. Is that weird? "I hear that."
Julie lets him haul her to her feet and support her to where the group is congregating, giving Zeus their attention. She laces their fingers together and feels fear flutter back into her stomach.
She almost forgot that this isn't over yet.
"Brethren," The King of the Gods booms, looking down his nose at all of them, Master Bolt clutched in his right hand. "We are healed, thanks to the work of these demigods. The Athena Parthenos, which once stood in this temple, now stands at Camp Halfblood. It has united our offspring, and thus our own essences."
Nico?
"Lord Zeus, is Reyna okay?" Piper beats her to the question. "Nico and Coach Hedge?"
Jason's hand tightens around Julie's as they both tense in preparation for bad news.
"They succeeded in their mission. As of this moment, they are alive."
Can you pass out from sheer, overwhelming relief? Whatever the cause, Julie certainly gets a bit light headed when she hears that, and she's very grateful to have a muscley boy to cling to for balance.
"As for if they are okay-"
"There is still work to be done," Hera interrupts.
Julie feels her powers flare at the pulse of irritation literally everyone in the room feels when she announces her presence. It's almost funny. Zeus doesn't think so. The king and queen are squabbling about who gets to take credit quickly after.
The rest of the conversation feels like a waste of time. Especially when the blame game starts.
Does Julie particularly like Apollo? No, definitely not. But, there's a certain level of kinship you feel with someone after fighting back to back, protecting one another in battle. It doesn't really please her to see him punished.
And, speaking of kinship, that gleam of dread - of fear in his eyes when he looks at his father...That's uncomfortably familiar to her.
Still, as she watches the Sun God be banished back to Olympus to await sentencing, all Juliette is really concerned about is hurrying this along so she can get to camp and protect her friends. She should have expected Jason to be more sensitive than that, though.
"What will happen to him?" He asks.
Slowly, Zeus turns to them and looks down on his youngest child.
Julie has never spoken with Zeus before. Hades, she doesn't think he's ever even looked at her until now. That trend pretty much continues. She's hanging off of his son's arm, and he barely spares her a glance.
"It is not your concern," He tells Jason. "We have other problems to address."
That's the end of the matter. At least, that's the implication of the finality in the god's voice.
Jason doesn't seem to agree.
"Father," He calls out, making Zeus turn to him again, this time in impatience. Julie looks at Jason with wide eyes as he faces the king fearlessly.
His jaw is locked, and his head is high. She hasn't seen that expression in a while.
"I made a vow to honor all the gods. I promised Kymopoleia that once this war is over, none of the gods will be without shrines at the camps."
Zeus scowls at him, uninterested. "That's fine. But...Kym, who?"
Julie doesn't know who that is either, but she's mortal. She's not the King of the Gods. The flash of anger that she feels from Jason at his father's question startles her.
"She's one of mine," Poseidon pipes up.
Jason doesn't look away from Zeus. Julie feels like she shouldn't be in the way, like she should be standing somewhere not so important during this conversation. But, the hand around hers is still gripping tightly, and she's never been able to deny Jason comfort before.
"My point," Jason's eyes narrow. "Is that blaming each other isn't going to solve anything. That's how the Romans and Greeks got divided in the first place."
Oh.
Fuck.
Julie's mind flashes white with terror. She feels the same from her friends. Even from some of the gods.
She's staring at her boyfriend in sheer disbelief. He's Roman. He's always been so respectful of the gods. He's been singing their praises, praying to them since they were twelve years old.
What is happening?
Julie is all for character development, but every word Jason speaks is putting him in more and more danger. Now, Juliette is the one gripping him tighter as Zeus swells up in righteous fury.
And, Jason just keeps talking. Completely undaunted.
"Apollo wasn't the problem," He says sternly, back straight. "To punish him for waking Gaea is unwise."
The silence of the Acropolis is deafening. Every head is turned in Jason's direction. All of them are white with fear.
All except three.
There are three little old ladies at the back of the room. They aren't staring at Jason. They're looking at Julie, passing each other needlepoint squares and spools of thread as they make themselves comfortable on a summoned set of chairs.
The one on the far right tilts her head up to peer at Juliette through her bifocals. She smirks, an ugly shape for her thin mouth to take, and the scissors in her hand clip a string with a snip.
A short strand of blue thread falls to the ground. Julie is distracted by it until she hears the dangerous tone of the Lord of Thunder's voice.
"Unwise..."
Jason tenses in her grasp. Julie feels the first thrill of fear from him since the end of the battle echo through the contact.
"Before the assembled gods, you would call me unwise."
Julie tears her focus from the old women to look up at the man. He's four times the height he was when she looked away, and there more are sparks firing between his fingers than she can follow. Any warmth for Jason there had been in him earlier is nowhere to be seen. Zeus looks cold and perilous.
They might be closer to death right now than they have been all day.
But, Jason's jaw is still locked. So, Juliette makes herself swallow her fear and stand, trembling, at his side.
Surprisingly, it's Artemis who comes to the couple's rescue. "Father, this hero has fought long and hard for our cause. His nerves are frayed. We should take that into account."
Julie feels Jason flicker with annoyance. Finally, she takes a stand and digs her fingernails into his knuckles.
Please, shut up, she tells him through her grip.
He frowns, but listens, thank gods. Julie isn't cut out to be the responsible one in this relationship. She's not sure she had much else in her quiver to throw at him if 'please' hadn't worked.
"Surely, we should attend to our more pressing matters," Artemis suggests.
The distraction works. Zeus reluctantly looks back to the group to brief them on Gaea's movements, and the air around them stops humming. Julie feels the breath rush out of her, her neck hair stops standing on end, and her forehead drops down heavily onto Jason's shoulder.
"Can you warn me next time you decide to sass the King of Olympus?" She whispers. "I'm with you, obviously, just...A heads up, okay?"
Jason lets out a tense breath of air. "Yes. I'm sorry. I just had to say something."
And, she loves him for that, she does. She just wishes he wasn't so liberal with risking his own safety.
Athena's voice rings out, steady and stern. Julie and Jason look up to the conversation. "Now, you must move quickly. Gaea rises to destroy your camp."
"The way the prophecy was spoken...The seven of you called forth by Delphi must be the ones to defeat Gaea. We gods cannot," Zeus tells them.
The Seven. Right.
Self doubt swirls around in Julies stomach. She'd forgotten she isn't actually a part of this quest.
Jason glances at Juliette. Instead of holding her hand, he shifts to drape an arm around her shoulders. "Father," He addresses the king. "The trip here took us months. Could you unleash the winds to send our ship back?"
Zeus scowls and turns to Jason with crossed arms.
"I could slap your ship back to New York."
...What?
"Was that a joke, or a threat, or..." Jason asks nervously.
"No," says his father. "I mean it quite literally. I could slap your ship back to Camp Halfblood, but the force involved..."
Over by Leo, Hephaestus clears his throat and slings an arm around his son's shoulders. "My boy Leo built a good ship, but it won't sustain that kind of stress. It would break apart as soon as they arrived, maybe sooner-"
"The Argo II can make it," Leo says firmly. Julie can't help but feel proud as Hephaestus gets a little smirk like he'd been expecting the interruption. Her friend straightens his toolbelt and addresses Annabeth. "It only has to stay in one piece long enough to get us home. Once we're there, we can abandon ship."
Something about that feels wrong to Julie, abandoning their home for the last two months. The place she came to know all of these people so well. The place Jason fell back in love with her. But, if Leo can make that hard decision, who is Juliette to argue it.
"It'll be dangerous," Hephaestus warns. "Possibly fatal."
"What else is new?" Julie sighs. Her friends all shrug like 'yeah.'
Nike struts over to join the conversation, golden laurel gleaming in the low light of the Acropolis. "Victory is always dangerous. And it often requires sacrifice," She looks at Leo. "Leo Valdez and I have discussed this."
Julie frowns.
Discussed...what?
A flash of nervousness. Of anxiety. From two sources. Leo across the room and Jason just beside her.
A weight settles into her stomach.
"What is she talking about, Leo?" Annabeth asks.
A fake smile is stretched across the boy's face as he adjusts his goggles. "You know, the usual. Victory. Sacrifice. Blah, blah, blah. Doesn't matter. We can do this, guys."
To storm or fire
She studies her friend across the way. She can feel everything he's feeling like it's being painted across her own skin in vibrant colors.
He's smiling, yes. But, he's terrified. More scared than he's ever been around her. There's bitter tasting desperation in him. Longing. Sadness.
There's a moment when Leo looks over at her. His face twitches with realization, probably at whatever fearful expression she's giving him that tells him she understands. He seems expectant for a second, like he's waiting for her inevitable argument.
Juliette the loudmouth, always ready to speak her mind and throw a wrench in the path of self sacrificing idiots. His hands are shaking on his goggles.
But, so are Jason's by her side.
She looks to her boyfriend. His face isn't giving anything away, but those same emotions are in him as well. He's scared. Regardless of how strong he looks. Of how straight his back is. How stiffly his jaw is set.
To storm or fire.
Leo and Jason are both afraid.
The latter looks down at her and smiles encouragingly. "Leo's right."
No he's not. He's planning something. Something Jason doesn't know.
"All aboard for one last trip."
It's now or never. What choice is she going to make?
Julie looks back across at Leo. There's a funny little smile on his face. His feline brown eyes flick down to Juliette's hand in Jason's. Then, they bounce back up to her face, and he gives her a wink.
Juliette thinks she will always hate herself for the whisper of disappointment she feels from him when her lips stay shut.
The ride back to New York is like the Willy Wonka Boat Ride of Death. Julie doesn't think she can ever enjoy an amusement park again.
The instant Jason slings open the door to the hatch Leo packed everybody into, Annabeth and Percy are already yanking her out of the hull and pulling her off the ship to safety. She follows the plan, shifting into a wyvern and taking to the air before she can splat like a bug on a windshield on the side of Halfblood Hill. She manages to keep herself from watching the Argo II continue to soar like a fiery ball of destruction towards the earth.
There is a plethora of chaos to distract herself with.
The ground below them is pandemonium. There are thousands of monsters flooding the campgrounds - more than Juliette has ever seen at one time. It's like watching a whole colony of ants converge on the carcass of a honeybee.
The demigods fighting have been split in half, one group at the base of the hill taking on the brunt of the force and another based around the feet of the Athena Parthe- Hey, that statue looks pretty good up there. Julie especially likes the lasers it keeps shooting at all the biggest enemies. Very aesthetic.
Julie hears Jason starting to shout orders at the others, an arm around Piper's waist as they hover nearby. Frank-the-eagle has Hazel on his back and a squirming Percy and Annabeth in either claw. Normally, Julie could hear her Soldier Boy talk all day, but his voice becomes background static when her vision zeroes in on a flash of purple light up at the crest of the hill.
A Hawaiian shirt. A mop of black hair. Mountains of monster dust growing all around him.
Nico.
Juliette goes supersonic, clearing the entire battlefield in only three powerful beats of her wings. Julie roars and spits venom on the group of monsters Nico and some Roman soldiers are slashing through, disintegrating them on contact and startling their allies into a hasty retreat.
Nico looks up, and Julie's heart soars as a bright smile spreads across his face, and he laughs in surprise.
She flies the rest of the distance to him, transforming midair so that she can topple down into his arms. She may have miscalculated the velocity at which she would be tackling him, but the legionnaires around them just cheer and form a protective circle as they teeter over onto the ground.
For maybe the first time ever in their friendship, Nico is hugging her back just as fiercely as she's holding him.
"You did it!" She cheers. He laughs again and nods against her armor. Juliette pulls out of the hug and scoots off of him to sit up. "Why are there pineapples on your shirt?"
Nico rolls his eyes. "Long story."
"Tell me later, then," Julie grins. She hops to her feet and offers him a hand. "Bet you I can kill 100 before you can."
He accepts the hand up, smirking. "I'm already at 48, so you'll need to catch up."
Jason and Piper drop down beside them just in time for the next wave of monsters to break their ranks. Julie whips out her bow and lays down cover fire as her three swordsy friends take on all of the monsters that get closest. Juliette laughs in relief as she sees Reyna take down one of the larger two headed men and run over to greet them.
"About time!" The praetor teases over the roar of battle. Gods, she's covered in dirt, dust, and dried blood, and she is still the most beautiful girl Juliette's ever seen. "Glad you could join us!"
Piper slashes through an enemy that was approaching Jason from behind and grins. "We had some giants to kill!"
Juliette whoops, and Reyna laughs, a wildness in her eyes that seems very different to the stern, inexpressive girl she met on the ship. "Well, help yourself to some barbarians."
"Why, thank you!" laughs Piper.
Juliette looks around, suddenly nauseous.
"Where's Leo?" She shouts.
Jason looks pained. He gestures over at the firey wreckage of the Argo II on the hillside, and her stomach twists.
"He'll be fine!" waves Nico, but he also looks even paler than a moment ago.
Leo's fireproof. He's okay. He's going to be okay.
To storm or fire...
Stay on task, Julie.
She skewers an arrow into both heads of a barbarian charging Reyna and Piper, and the girls call back a quick thanks.
"But, just in case," Nico says, looking over at Julie and Jason. He nods and raises his black sword. "For Leo."
Now, that's a battle cry she can get behind.
The five of them get separated fairly quickly. Much like the battle of the Labyrinth, Julie finds herself trying to stay away from the members of the Seven in an attempt to keep the aid they're offering distributed amongst all of their allies.
She isn't sure when she became a trump card. Juliette hasn't ever really considered herself a fighter. She's only fifteen. She does cheer. She cries at One Direction songs and can't drink espresso because it's too bitter. And yet, the looks of relief that she gets from both the Romans and Greeks when she drops down to slash her talons across a whole legion of monsters?
She might be buggin', but she's pretty sure it's the same way they look at Percy and Jason.
One of the 'highlights' of the battle for her ends up being the first time an enemy lands a blow. She takes a boulder to the chest from one of the larger earthborns and has to crash land at the base of the hill. Julie opens her eyes as a human again expecting to be overwhelmed by an entire group of enemies like she's in the demigod Walking Dead.
Surprisingly, though, a gruff voice starts shouting out orders, and Juliette finds herself in the center of a protective circle of orange and purple shirts.
"Here!"
Julie turns her head in surprise, jostling what's definitely a set of very broken ribs, and Kayla is already shoving a whole square of ambrosia into her hand. Not wanting to waste the healer's time, Julie nods in thanks and stuffs it in her mouth. Kayla starts to run away, but Julie snags her wrist.
"Hang on!" She urges, mouth full. Juliette reaches back and grabs a fist full of arrows. She pulls them out and stuffs them into Kayla's empty quiver. "Be careful."
She gets a grateful nod in return, and then the younger girl's green tipped hair is disappearing out of the circle.
"Get off your ass, Aster!"
"Missed you too, Clarisse!" Julie laughs as the taste of enchiladas and chocolate chip cookies tingles warmth down her front, healing her ribs at least enough to start moving again. She forces herself to her feet and draws her bow. "I'm good!"
"Break it up, people!" The daughter of Ares orders. The circle they'd formed goes back to unorganized chaos, and Julie re-enters the fray.
Eventually, they knock down the number around them enough to get the chance to regroup. The questers find each other again. Julie takes her place on Percy's left, Annabeth on his right, and downs a shot of nectar from the medicine tent as Reyna's voice rings out across the battlefield.
"Legion, cuneum formate! Advance!"
The Romans shout in unison and meet the monsters' reinforcements in a practiced formation. Julie and the rest of Camp Halfblood look at Percy with raised eyebrows. He looks back at them awkwardly.
"Greeks!" Riptide hits the sky. "Let's, um...Fight stuff!"
Juliette screams out in her fiercest war-voice and charges with her friends.
She doesn't make it far. Only two arrows in, the ground starts to shake, and Juliette's blood runs cold.
It's like every tree, every blade of grass bends to point at the crest of a nearby hill. Rising from the earth, sickeningly, terrifyingly beautiful, is a woman in dark green robes. Her black hair is long and curly, her lips blood red and bent into a snarl.
Julie takes her in.
All of this grandeur, and she just looks like the weird lady down the street who sages her living room every weekend. At least Kronos had a concept. At least he looked like a bad guy.
"Little fools," Gaea hisses. Her voice echoes down all of Juliette's bones, ringing sharply even in the base of her toenails. "The paltry magic of your statue cannot contain me."
Juliette looks at the statue of Athena. There's a crack in the base of it. Silver light seems to be oozing out almost like blood.
"Stand fast!" Piper calls out, charmspeak heavy in her voice. "Greeks and Romans, we can fight her together!"
There's really nothing worse than when evil deities laugh. The sound of Gaea's chuckles burns like fire through Julie's inner ear. The Primordial raises her hands, and, if it weren't for Jason's quick reflexes, Juliette's lower half would have been sunk into the ground right alongside the majority of their forces.
She clings to Jason as he holds her and Piper both in the air. Gaea's attention is on them. She smirks.
"The whole earth is my body. How could you fight a goddess of-"
FOOOOOMP!
A strangled cry of celebration escapes Juliette as Gaea is swept off the hilltop in a flash of bronze and flame. Festus - their Festus - is flying once again, and he's holding the struggling goddess of the earth between his shiny new talons.
Leo Valdez, alive, yee-haws like a cowboy and points down at them.
"Jason! Julie, Pipes!" He calls out. "You guys comin'? The fight's up here!"
Oh, yeah. She's on her way.
Gods, she thought he was gone. She thought he went and blew himself up. But, there he is, grinning like a madman while the big bad Gaea spits death threats at him from below.
Maybe they can do this, after all.
To storm or fire Julie's left buttcheek. Delphi ain't here, and they're gonna get through this together.
She lets out a deranged sounding bark of laughter and wriggles out of Jason's hold. She stretches her body back out into a gargantuan, bloodstained creature of nightmare and flaps her wings to the beat of the battle chant of the Roman Legion.
It's time to end this. Juliette is ready for that future they all promised to share.
Fighting with Gaea, even in the sky, is like nothing Julie has ever done before.
Between every spray of sharpened shrapnel that she lobs at all of them, the goddess also crumbles her body apart. Jason is doing everything he can to keep himself and Piper afloat while he deflects her attacks from hitting any of them. Julie and Festus are engaging in a highly stressful game of hot-potato-Primordial while Leo, coated entirely in flames, cooks Gaea with fire and creative insults.
"YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" She wails, crumbling to rocks in Festus' talons again just to fall right into Juliette's waiting claws. "I AM ETERNAL!"
"Eternally annoying!" retorts Leo.
Boom. Roasted. Literally.
Jason flies up closer, holding Piper up as she leans in close to Gaea's ear. "You are so weary..." She whispers.
The goddess thrashes. "FOOLISH CHILDREN!"
"Eons of pain and disappointment weigh on you..."
"SILENCE!"
Gaea starts to crumble again. Julie tightens her claws around the goddess, and she screams out in frustration, gripping her hands like she's trying to pry Juliette's talons apart.
"Millenia of sorrow..."
A burst of power leaves the goddess, but Julie hangs on. Her friends are nearly blown away by the force of it. Leo steers Festus up closer, ready to receive the goddess should she successfully break away.
Weirdly enough, the woman has gone still.
Piper keeps trying, lowering her voice to be so soothing that even Juliette has to fight off her fatigue. "Your husband, Ouranos, was abusive. Your grandchildren overthrew your beloved Titans. All your other children were thrown into Tartarus. You are so tired of heartbreak."
There's a beat where they think it may have worked. Julie's prisoner goes limp.
Then, Gaea looks up at Piper, and every molecule around them stands completely still.
Juliette feels frozen in time. She watches the blood drain out of her sister's cheeks at whatever she sees on the goddess' face. When she speaks, Gaea's voice is low and rasped.
"Lies."
Julie doesn't feel it at first. It just seems like regular stiffness from having her claws shut so tightly for so long. But, then Jason and Piper scream out protests, and Juliette looks down.
In the places Gaea is gripping the talons of Julie's right leg, her scales are turning gray. Gray and...heavy. Like stone. Like earth. And the goddess' intentions become clear.
"Give her here!" Leo screams, completely serious for once.
Julie tries, but the joints in that foot are completely frozen. She can't even feel them anymore. The stiffness is spreading up, locking Juliette's ankle as it creeps up her shin. And Gaea doesn't seem interested in being transferred to a new prison.
"JULIE, LET GO!" bellows Piper.
The charmspeak takes hold, and whatever is still functional in Juliette's leg responds to it, flinging Gaea into the air. Julie sees Festus snap the goddess up. Leo's eyes are narrowed in a rage she's never seen before in the boy, but she has no time to see where they go.
She's dropping out of the sky. Fast.
It brings back memories - falling out of the clouds, trying to keep Festus from crashing to bits on the plains below. Only this time, Juliette is the one about to bite the dust, and her right foot is just one big, useless anchor.
She flaps her wings to slow her descent, but she can't stop it. She's going to crash. So, she lets out a loud roar instead to alert whoever is below her.
Then, she hits the ground.
Julie has felt pain before. What she went through on the Princess Andromeda was definitely the worst of it. Khione freezing her half to death was a close second. Getting torn to shreds by the Furies definitely didn't feel good either.
Nothing compares to this.
Nothing.
She hits stone-foot first. And it shatters.