Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
The Ever Twisting Wind: The Gaean War
Chapter Three: A Hero's Quest - A Godly View
Beta: *Beta Wanted*
A few days after Hedwig had returned from her Quest with an upgrade, Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter and Dryad Lieutenant of the goddess of the wild, found herself in her goddess' bedroom in her blimp palace as the two of them painted each other's nails to pass the time.
"Argh! No offense, Katie, but I hate being stuck at home like this!" Her goddess, Andromeda Aurae, whined rather unbecomingly as she carefully helped apply a coat of beautiful brown polish to Katie's nails.
"Well, it can't be helped, can it? We can't exactly defy Lord Zeus' ban on mingling with mortals and closing up Olympus and associated divine realms." Katie pointed out reasonably as Andi finished and she carefully examined her nails, comparing it against the bark of her tree self and seeing, much to her pleasure, that it matched the shade of the young pine tree that was her tree self perfectly.
"I know! But I miss my boyfriend damnit!" Andi said in yet another piteous whine and threw herself back onto her bed. "If not for Father's bloody libido and wanting into Khione's pants, I wouldn't be stuck here!"
"Lord Zeus is as Lord Zeus ever was." Katie said with a shrug. She had absolutely no sympathy for her divine uncle. He was the reigning Lord of the Universe, but did he act like it? No! He was a horndog who just kept thinking with his lower head, to the point that he let Khione seduce him into thinking that hiding away in their godly realms was a smart way to prepare for a war with Gaea. Instead of, you know, actually preparing for war!?
"Don't remind me!" Andi said with a groan as she sat back up. "But he could spare a thought for others once in awhile, you know! I had so many dirty things I wanted to do with Will! And now, I'm stuck on an enforced dry spell instead!"
"I want my William damnit!" Andi shouted petulantly as she reached out and caught hold of one of the Diricawls that lived in her bedroom and served as one of her living plushies, pulling the adorable, plump flightless magical bird covered in fluffy bluish-pink feathers to her chest. "I wanted us to experiment with taking on animal forms and rutting like them, you know!? Being one with my domain of the wild as befits its goddess and all that!"
Blushing brilliantly at what her maidenly ears were hearing, Katie covered them with her hands and even had Brick grow out a pair of pseudopods to do the same too for extra measure. "TMI, Andi! TMI!"
Smirking at the reaction that her ramblings had garnered, Andi turned to the mortified Katie. "Aww~! You're so innocent, Katie. Aren't you older than me?"
"Technically…"
If they counted her previous life as a Half-blood, but if she was counting her years in her current life…
"Don't tell me!" Andi gasped, gently tossing the excitedly squawking Diricawl aside only for it to land perfectly on one of the throw cushions that were strategically scattered throughout the room. "Katie, you've never been with someone else!?"
Her blush growing even brighter, Katie nodded. With how embarrassed she was feeling, she didn't trust herself to speak properly without making a fool of herself.
"I see. I see. That's why." Andi said with an exaggerated sagely nod and leaned forward to pat Katie's head. "Don't worry, Katie, you'll get it when you get yourself a lover."
Okay, this feels like safer ground. Katie thought as fighting through her embarrassment, she mustered the wherewithal to reply. "I-I'm actually glad I don't have a boyfriend. Since my rebirth as a Dryad, I've been de-aged into a little girl again. So if any guy did show interest in me, I'd have to introduce them to Brick for being a pedophile."
As the good boy that he was, Brick waved a pair of his pseudopods in agreement.
"I suppose you're right." Andi said with a nod. "But like I said, you'll get why I'm so upset over my dry spell when you grow up."
Katie hummed noncommittally. "I don't know about that. When I was a mortal, I didn't really get into any relationships. So, I'm not exactly holding onto hope in my new Dryad life either."
"Oh, don't be so pessimistic, Katie! Never give up hope! You'll never know!"
Katie just shrugged. "I'll take things as they come."
"That's a good attitude to have again." Ida said as she opened the door to Andi's bedroom and stepped inside, carefully leaning down to stop the Crup that tried to take the chance of the open door to wander out of Andi's room. The adorable Jack Russell terrier-like dog, except that it had a forked tail, was yet another of the menagerie of cute magical animals that served as Andi's living plushies.
"It totally is." Andi said, echoing Ida's sentiments. "Though, Ida, what brings you here?"
"I heard you were complaining about Lord Zeus' ban again." The Oread said with a disappointed shake of her head. "You know, if you're really as bored as to complain about the same thing for the umpteenth time that you could instead use your time productively? Perhaps by watching the Heroes from Camp Half-Bloods on their Quest to save Lady Hera? So that you might help them should the need arise?"
"But that's boring! I mean it's fun when I was a Half-blood on a Quest but watching isn't half as fun!"
"You found Questing fun?" Katie asked, looking at Andi in disbelief. "Not nerve wrecking? Or maybe terrifying?"
"Uh… No?" Andi said with a shake of her head. "Yeah, it was all that sometimes too, but it was mostly fun. At least, I remember it being that way."
Katie nodded in understanding. "I get it. Nostalgia goggles."
Andi blinked. "Huh… Maybe you're right."
Ida cleared her throat, causing Andi to literally jump in her seat. Considering she was seated on her bed, which had a mattress of pure magically contained air, this caused her to have quite a bounce, much to Katie's amusement.
"Really, Ida! I wasn't complaining about Father's ban again! I promise!"
"Yes, she was. She started as she was finishing my nails." Katie said, ratting her goddess out.
Andi shot her a betrayed look, but Katie just shrugged. "Lying isn't a good thing, Andi."
The goddess of the wild sighed. "Fine, I admit it. Yeah. I was complaining about the silly ban again. But only after we got done with our nails! So, like, it wasn't like I wasn't doing something productive. Katie, show Ida our nails!"
Katie rolled her eyes at her goddess' obvious attempt at a deflection but obligingly showed off the nails that Andi had expertly painted for her even as the daughter of Zeus did the same with her own electric blue set of nails.
"They look very nice." Ida complimented with a sincere smile before her face turned stern. "But that's besides the point, Andromeda!" Andi winced and hastily pulled her hands back. Katie gave her goddess a sympathetic look. She was in deep trouble if Ida was using her full name like this. "You're a goddess now! You should stop complaining about things you cannot change and instead work with the situation that you find yourself in. Dealing with unfair rulings by the Olympian Council is par for the course."
"Well, it shouldn't be." Andi said with a pout, but quickly changed the subject when Ida shot her a chiding look. "Um, where's Alice?"
Whilst waiting on some actionable intelligence to exploit so they could launch an attack against Gaea and her Gigantes children, Lady Alice, the Technodjinn assigned to be their liaison as part of the alliance between them and Andi, had taken to just lounging around the palace.
"Sunbathing in the palace gardens." Ida said with a frown. "Honestly, why does she even need to do that? Her body is a robot. She can just swap out her skin for a set with whatever skin tone for whatever she wants. Failing that, she's a goddess and can use her powers to alter her appearance. She doesn't need to sunbathe."
Andi shrugged. "She just likes to. I asked her about it and she mentioned how it's relaxing to just do nothing and lay down soaking up the sun for a while."
Katie nodded in empathetic understanding. As a photosynthesizing plant herself, she could totally understand just wanting to stay in one place and soak up the sun. Ida obviously couldn't though. Not if her shaking head was any indication of her thoughts.
She wasn't able to voice them though as just then, the door to the room slammed open and Wendy blew into the room. "Andi! Something's happened that I'm sure you'll be interested to know about!"
Shooting the Aurae a cautiously optimistic look, Andi asked. "What is it?"
"You know how you got us keeping track of those Questers from Camp Half-Blood? Well! They're about to pay the Ivory Tower of the Stygian Oracle a visit."
"Are you sure about that?" Andi asked excitedly, standing up.
"Yup. I've checked in with one of the Aurae that are keeping tabs on the Ivory Tower and they confirmed it."
"Oh! That's great. I can't wait to see what prophecy Ron gives the Questers." Andi said as she hurried out of her bedroom and grabbed Wendy by the arm as she passed, dragged her along as they headed off towards, if Katie was to guess, the conservatory where they were using IMs to keep track of the Questers. "Tell me everything that we know!"
"At least she isn't bored anymore?" Katie suggested to a fondly exasperated Ida as they watched her go, whilst she had Brick help stop the Crup from attempting to use the opened door to escape the room again. She could understand that things in the Campers' Quest was finally getting interesting - before now, it had been pretty par for the course with a host of meetings for the mortals with various Immortals, notably Lord Boreas and his children, and rogue spirits of the dead, such as Medea and King Midas. Some of them were near-death experiences but again that was nothing new on a Quest and frankly having done both, watching it happen was a lot less thrilling than experiencing it firsthand. That and frankly for all that the Questers were going through quite a challenge, she'd been through worse during her time as a Half-Blood. The most interesting thing was that the Questers had set out from Camp Half-Blood riding Festus, the Celestial Bronze dragon automaton that Lord Hephaestus had tamed during his brief punishment stint as Camp's resident tinkerer before Lord Zeus recalled all the gods back to their divine realms as part of his ban on contact with mortals but even that bit of fun had ended when Medea had sicced a pair of her sun dragons on the automaton and destroyed it. Last Katie had checked for herself, the Questers had just ran into the Hunters of Artemis and been directed towards Aeolus' palace, where they probably had yet another boring meeting! - what with them about to stop by one of Andi's friends but was it really something to get that excited about? Katie didn't think so, but she also wasn't going to tell her goddess that.
"Yes, I suppose that's a positive." Ida said with a smile. "I think that dog needs a walk. Mind taking him, Katie?"
"Sure." Katie agreed easily enough. She'd much rather take a dog for a walk than watch a Quest. She might not have liked being on one when she'd been a Half-blood like Andi apparently had, but she liked watching them now even less. "Leave it to me, Ida."
"You sure we need to climb this tower, Pipes?" Jason Grace, son of Zeus, heard Leo Valdez, his friend and son of Hephaestus, ask for the tenth time as they slogged their way up the steep steps of the ivory colored tower that had found themselves at the base off after the escape from Aeolia and their third friend and his sort-of girlfriend, Piper McLean's, dream visit with her divine mother, Aphrodite.
"Aphrodite sent us here for a reason." Piper said with a shrug. "We just have to find out why that is."
Jason couldn't help but frown at Piper just addressing her mother by her name like that. Not only was it disrespectful and risked the Lady of Doves' displeasure but it spoke of his friend's… complicated feelings towards her mother. It wasn't like he couldn't commiserate. He didn't like how his own father, Zeus, hadn't been part of his life either. But… he didn't hate him. Not like he feared that Piper might hate her mother. And considering Aphrodite was the goddess of love… Hating her meant hating love itself… Living like that… Was it even a life worth living?
I hope she grows out of it. Jason thought. Even if their relationship was complicated - thanks to the meddling gods -, he did like her and she was pretty. That was enough for him to hope that they worked out. But if she was like he was thinking… Then that was a fool's dream at best.
"It probably has something to do with the goddess, Andromeda Aurae." Jason said, letting none of his worrying thoughts show, as he gestured at one of the murals detailing the legends about the goddess Andromeda Aurae, in particular her part in creating the Stygian Oracle, that covered the entire outer surface of the tower they were climbing. Stories that they all vaguely remembered as obscure parts of the Hellenist mythological canon.
"Yeah, no shit, Jason Holmes!" Leo said with a roll of his eyes. "What gave you that clue?"
"I think we're here to see the Stygian Oracle actually." Piper suggested. "If I remember correctly, the goddess of the wild's palace was supposed to float in the clouds. I don't think this fits."
"This tower is high enough to be in the clouds."
"Yeah, Jason's right. This thing is more than tall enough to fit that bill!"
"Maybe," Piper conceded. "But the rest doesn't fit. Her palace is supposed to be full of greenery and magic. This place might have the latter-" She gestured to the thick bank of Mist that surrounded them. "But I don't think that counts."
"And there's no greenery around here at all." Jason noted, surveying the bleak landscape around them. Besides the ivory tower, there was nothing but barren earth and impenetrably thick banks of Mist.
"Exactly." Piper said, smiling at him for agreeing with her.
"Well, we'll figure out whoever we're here to see soon enough." Leo said with a tired sigh as the stairs finally came to an end and they found themselves stepping onto a landing near the tower's top that faced a pair of very sturdy looking wooden doors.
"Um, should we knock?" Jason asked, looking to his friends for their opinion.
Before either of them could reply, the wooden doors swung open without anyone touching it. And as they did, the trio of Half-bloods found themselves walking into a conversation.
"Hermione! Where did you put the socks? I can't find them in the medicine cabinet?" A male voice shouted out from somewhere out of sight.
"Socks? In the medicine cabinet?" A woman with a light complexion, bright brown eyes, and a long mane of bushy brown hair paused in using a wand to direct a tea set and a tower of snacks as they floated into place on a coffee table in the middle of the sitting room that the three Half-bloods had walked into. A coffee table where five places were being set up. "Why are you looking for socks in the medicine cabinet? Why do you even need socks right now? We're home! Do you want to go out la- Oh! You meant rubbers! Why did you even call them socks!?"
"Um…" Jason stammered out awkwardly. He didn't want to interrupt the awkward conversation, but he didn't want to be ignored either. They were on an important Quest and they really couldn't afford to waste time.
"Wait a minute. Let me handle my husband first. The tea needs to steep for a bit anyway." The woman said, raising a hand to signal for them to wait as she turned towards the sound of the male voice. "Ron! Did you forget!? We tossed the condoms out because we decided to try for a baby. And why by the Pit are you asking me now when you know we're going to have company? Impressionable company at that!?"
"To break the ice of course." The man who must be Ron - a very tall and lanky man with fiery red hair, a freckled complexion, blue eyes, a long nose, and big hands and feet - said as he walked into a room and turned to look at Jason and his friends. "You guys aren't as stressed out about your Quest now, are you?"
"No…" Jason confessed with a brilliant blush similar to the ones that Piper and Leo were also wearing.
"Though, I'm not sure feeling mortally embarrassed is any better." Piper opined with a wince.
The Hermione woman shot her husband a glare at that. He, however, just unrepentantly shrugged. "It was the best way that I foresaw to help them relax a little."
"Likely story." Hermione said with a disbelieving roll of her eyes. "It's probably either the first one that worked which your visions showed you or the most entertaining."
"Guilty." Ron confessed with a smirk.
Sighing, Hermione gestured towards the sofa around the coffee table and addressed Jason and his friends. "Forgive my husband, Heroes. Welcome to the Tower of the Stygian Oracle. Please have a seat."
"The Stygian Oracle?" Leo asked, blinking in confusion, as he took Hermione up on her offer and moved to take a seat.
"That's me." Ron said with a proud grin. "Ron Weasley at your service."
Jason exchanged disbelieving looks with his two friends even as he and Piper followed Leo's lead and took seats around the table that the Weasleys offered them.
"I know, I know, you were expecting some kinda half dead creature, right?" Ron said with a grin. "Well, if you'd caught us right after I took up the mantle maybe that's what you'd have found."
"But we've gotten a lot better since then." Hermione said with a smile. "Now, please, enjoy some tea."
Leo picked a cookie from the tower of snacks and shoved it into his mouth. A sight that had Jason and Piper sending him incredulous looks.
"W-What? D-Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, you know!" He said defensively as she swallowed and took a sip of his cup of tea.
"I don't think that's why they gave you those looks, young Leo." Hermione said with a giggle as with a wave of her wand, she disappeared the crumbs that the son of Hephaestus' messy eating had left all over his face and around him in general.
"I, um, didn't realize the Stygian Oracle had a wife." Piper said after rolling her eyes at Leo's utter lack of manners, clearly deciding to just ignore him and steer things in a more productive direction. Leo was many wonderful things but a well mannered individual was not one of them, not now and likely not ever.
"We didn't start out as husband and wife." Ron said as he popped his eighth macaroon into his mouth. Jason was starting to get an idea why Hermione was so good at cleaning away crumbs. "We were just friends who happened to serve as the Stygian Oracle and his Mouthpiece."
"Ron's prophecies will not be believed by those who hear them unless I repeat them. However, even then, it's usually only 50/50 odds on whether they're heeded."
"Still better than never at all." Ron chimed in as he took a break from demolishing the snack tower, a task he was ably aided in by Leo, to add.
"Yes, quite. Now quiet, Ron. Eat your snacks and let me do the talking for now."
"Okay, Hermione."
Shaking her head fondly at her husband's antics, Hermione turned back towards Jason and Piper. Leo seemed too preoccupied with the snacks to add anything meaningful to the conversation.
"Like, I was saying, because of that rather unfortunate aspect of Ron's oracular ability, I repeat his prophecies for him. I was thus his Mouthpiece. And well, that necessitated living together. We didn't come to hate each other whilst doing so, quite the opposite really, and so one thing led to another and viola! We got married."
"Ah… That's all fascinating and all, but why did we have to come see you? Does Ron have a prophecy for us?"
"Yeah, I do." Ron said as he paused in his gluttonous consumption of snacks, took a sip of tea to clear his throat and turned to look at them seriously before speaking in a voice that dripped with power. "Heed my words, Heroes! Be warned! At Sonoma, snow will be terrified by fire but it will fail to land the killing blow. The wild and the heart of the machine will steal that honor. However, despite your best efforts, the dead king will rise once again but victory will be stolen from the jaws of defeat nevertheless."
If that was a prophecy, it was unlike any that Jason had heard of. It certainly wasn't like the one which had sent them on this Quest in the first place. It was more direct. Sure, Ron had the mystical voice down… But somehow, it just didn't feel real. It was just so different from other prophecies…
"I can see you're disbelieving Ron already. So let me repeat it for you." Hermione said with a smile. "Heed my words, Heroes! Be warned! At Sonoma, snow will be terrified by fire but fail to land the killing blow. The wild and the heart of the machine will steal that honor. However, despite your best efforts, the dead king will rise once again but victory will be stolen from the jaws of defeat nevertheless."
Hermione's recitation of Ron's prophecy somehow sounded more real. But yet…
"If you're wondering about why it's so direct, well, Styx doesn't like to mince her words. Plus, I try my best to make it less vague too. I hear that's the biggest complaint of Questers about prophecies."
"Totally." Leo said with an unhappy grunt. "Like, I've only heard one or two prophecies and I already hate them. But, um, could you be even more direct? I mean, there's plenty of stuff you're still leaving to our interpretation, right?"
"Of course." Ron agreed. "It wouldn't be a prophecy if I told you guys everything upfront, now would it?"
"I guess not." Leo grumbled unhappily.
"You believe that was a real prophecy?" Piper asked incredulously, voicing Jason's own thoughts on the matter.
"Maybe, maybe not. But there's no harm in believing it, right? I mean, it's not like it's hinting at us about what to do, it's just telling us what's gonna happen. Isn't that right?"
"No comment." Hermione said with a coy grin.
Well, that's no help at all. But I do suppose Leo is right about there being no harm in taking this so-called prophecy at face value. At least for now.
After listening to what she was sure was Ron's bogus prophecy, Piper and her friends had nevertheless stayed to enjoy the Weasleys' hospitality. Whether they were frauds in the prophecy department or not didn't matter, they had been nice enough to prepare tea and snacks for them so it was only polite for them to stay and enjoy them. Besides, it was unlikely they'd have managed to pry Leo away before he got done eating anyway.
Thankfully, that hadn't taken more than fifteen minutes, and so with their little tea time over, Piper. Jason and Leo were finally setting off again. However, just as they were about to leave, Ron spoke up.
"Piper, a word before you leave."
"What is it?" The daughter of Aphrodite asked the man she was sure was a quack with a frown.
"Just some advice, young lady." He said with a sad smile. If she wasn't certain it was all an act, she would've pinned it as him feeling sad knowing that though well meaning, his advice would not be heeded. "If you wish to find happiness, you must let go of both your anger towards your mother and your pride."
"How dare-" Piper hissed, drawing Katoptris and pointing the parazonium blade threateningly at the scam artist.
"Expelliarmus!" The daughter of Aphrodite heard Hermione shout before a red beam slammed into her and sent her Celestial Bronze knife flying from her hands whilst simultaneously sending her flying out of the open doors to the Wesleys home. She flew past Jason and Leo as she did and saw them running after her but as soon as she passed the threshold of the door, her world turned white and she lost consciousness.
"Such a hot blooded girl." Ron said with a disappointed shake of his head as the two boys chased after their friend and disappeared into the Mist outside their doors, the latter snapping closed behind them the moment they had exited them.
"You're not entirely blameless here, Ron." Hermione said as she put away her wand. "You knew she would react badly to what you told her."
"I did." Ron admitted. "But it had to be said. She will die alone, unloved and having lived an unfulfilled life if someone didn't set her straight."
"And you think a few words from you will change that?" Hermione demanded, crossing her arms and staring at him unhappily.
"No, but it will help." Ron said with a shrug. "Especially if it is repeatedly reinforced, Maybe then she'll grow up from the spoiled brat she is and actually listen. Isn't that right, Andi?"
"I don't think it's fair to call her spoiled, Ron." Andi said as she materialized at a seat at their coffee table. A coffee table that was now laden with a whole new supply of snacks and a freshly brewed pot of tea.
"Oh, she might not admit it, but she's spoiled alright." Ron told his goddess friend as he walked back to join her at the table. "She grew up rich enough to never want for anything she truly desired, was consistently validated by caregivers that were too afraid of alienating her father to tell her no, and was showered with affection by her loving father. She even got out of jail for stealing a car. How could she not be spoiled?"
"Spoiled enough to ruin her life?" Hermione asked with a frown as she joined them at the coffee table.
""Yes."" Ron and Andi said in unprompted unison.
"If she does not grow up, she will ruin her own happiness soon enough." Andi said with a shake of her head. "I can't foresee the details, neither love nor prescience are my domains but I can see enough to know that."
"Oh, it's worse than that." Ron said with a shake of his head. One full of the sadness of knowing the self-destructive path the McLean girl was on. "She will find happiness. Her mother will give it to her on a silver platter and for her services to Olympus, the other gods will let her have it. But she will throw it away. All because she is too prideful to accept the gods' hands in her life, especially that of her mother who despite all her words to the contrary she will never stop resenting."
Andi winced. "Aphrodite will never forgive her for that. Spurning love for petty reasons like that… She will never know happiness again."
"She won't. Only betrayal after painful betrayful awaits her down that path."
They all winced at his prophetic words. Ron dearly hoped that Piper found the strength to change her life. She still had time. Because if she didn't… Ron honestly didn't think he would wish her fate on his worst enemy. Okay, maybe that was hyperbole but not by much.
"She's just like you said she would be. She is very uncertain about her relationship with Jason despite being madly in love with him. Yet, when she realizes Lady Aphrodite set them up, her own pride and anger towards her mother for abandoning her father will ultimately overcome even her feelings for him and lead to her ending their relationship just to spite her mother."
"Observant as always, Ron." Andi praised. "And yeah. It's damned frustrating to watch. I honestly feel insulted on Lady Aphrodite's behalf. Heck! I'm personally insulted too!"
"Why?" Hermione asked, confused.
"Piper's anger stems from what she sees as her mother, who she cannot forgive, meddling in her love life. Since love is her domain that is tantamount to criticizing Aphrodite for being unable to manage her own domain properly, a very grievous slight against not just her mother but also all gods. It implies we can't do our jobs. That we haven't been keeping the world running since the world began!"
Hermione let out a disappointed sigh. "Honestly, how could anyone make a mistake like that? Lady Aphrodite isn't just the goddess of love. She is love personified, essentially love itself. When she blesses people, she isn't forcing anyone to fall in love, she is inspiring them to seek out the chance of love between them. By rejecting her gift, Piper is rejecting love."
"Her feelings for her mother aside. Piper's foolishness is driven by pride. She cannot accept that she isn't in total control of herself and if she doesn't let go of that foolish pride, she will lose her chance at happiness with not just Jason but altogether."
They all shook their heads at that. Truly, the bible had the right of it when it said, 'pride goeth before destruction.'
"Okay, enough about that poor girl's fate." Hermione said with a shake of her head. "Andi, where did the Mist deposit them after they left our tower? I need to send them her knife."
"A sidewalk cafe in San Francisco." Andi informed them as she took Piper's knife, which promptly vanished. "I'll have one of my Aurae deliver that. It'll be there with them alongside the rest of the gear they lost before showing up at your tower when they wake up."
"Thank you, Andi." Hermione said, offering their friend a smile. "Though, a question."
"Go ahead." The goddess said, an amused smile on her face as she buttered a scone. "Is it safe for you to be here? Didn't Lord Zeus ban the gods from all interactions with mortals including demigods?"
"Yeah. So? You two aren't quite mortals anymore."
Hermione frowned. "You're playing with fire, Andi, exploiting loopholes like this."
The goddess shrugged. "That's how gods work all the time, besides I already intervened by making sure the Questers stopped by the Ivory Tower to get Ron's prophetic guidance."
"That was your doing?" Ron asked, cocking an eyebrow, already knowing it was nothing of the sort. If anything, it was the Fates' work. Or pure chance. Contrary to what the mortals believed, not everything was the work of the capricious gods. Sometimes, things just happen.
"It might as well be. The Ivory Tower is under my jurisdiction."
"Then your visiting just makes it even more likely that you'll incur Lord Zeus' wrath, doesn't it?" Hermione pointed out.
Andi just shrugged and popped her buttered scone into her mouth seemingly without a care in the world.
Well, if that's how she wants to play things.
"So Andi, what do you think? When do you think Hermione and I will get lucky?" Ron asked as he lifted his cup of tea to take a sip.
"Why are you asking me? I'm not a goddess associated with pregnancy."
Hermione huffed at their clear dismissal of her concerns but she didn't press either. Instead, she just reached for a cupcake and joined the conversation. "Doesn't your domain over the wild give you influence over fertility?"
"Here, Ron, Hermione, take this." Andi said apologetically as she handed a bag of drachma to Ron as she prepared to take her leave. "I wish I didn't have to do this. It makes it seem like helping Jason, Leo and Piper is just a job I assigned to you."
"Don't worry about it, Andi." Hermione said, offering her friend a smile. She was a such a worrywart.
"Yeah, Andi. What 'Mione said, don't worry about it." Ron said with a smile of his own. "It's what the Ancient Laws demand. Besides, it was a job."
"I know, but I still feel bad about it."
"No need to. Not about something we can't change."
Andi nodded. Though she still looked like she could not accept how things had to be.
Always the rebel aren't you, Andi? Hermione thought fondly.
"Before you go, Andi, can I ask if you've warned Luna about what's coming to New Rome?"
"Thanks to Hermione, I have that settled. I've arranged a meeting to tell her."
Ron turned to her questioningly at that. It wasn't often she surprised her husband, his prophetic ability made that extremely difficult, so she took a moment to savor it before with a smile, she explained. "It wasn't much, I just did some research for Andi. Surprisingly, the Wizarding World is enough of a gray area between the mortal and mythic worlds to allow meetings in it to be outside of Zeus' prohibition."
"Weren't you the one scolding Andi for playing with fire by exploiting loopholes in Zeus' ban just now?"
"Well, this is different." Hermione insisted with a blush. "We need to warn Luna."
"So you say, 'Mione. So you say." Ron teased, causing her to blush harder.
"You two are so cute together." Andi giggled at their expense, reminding Hermione that she was still there.
"Why thank you, Andi." Ron said, even as Hermione struggled to recover from her embarrassment.
Andi just smirked mischievously. "Well, I don't think I'll bother you lovebirds for much longer. I've just got one last thing to let you know about before I really make my move."
"Oh? What's that?"
"You'll get it when you see it." Andi said as her playful smile went up a notch in intensity. "Hedwig, girl, come say hello to Ron and Hermione would you?"
In a burst of wind, the familiar presence of Hedwig appeared beside Andi. But she was no longer a mere Post Owl anymore. Standing by the goddess of the wild was what could only be called an Owl Dragon.
"Well, this is a surprise." Ron, the king of understatements, said as he stared at the changed avian. Was Hedwig even still an avian? Or was she more draconic and so reptilian? Were dragons classified as reptiles?
Questions swirled in Hermione's mind and she turned to the only source of answers available to her, "Andi! Explain!"
Smiling like the cat who caught the canary at the reaction she'd gotten, the goddess happily began regaling them of the tale of the brave Hedwig and her Quest of ascension.
Sitting in a comfortable wicker chair in the conservatory of her goddess' palace as she and the other leading members of Andi's court - her goddess of course but also Wendy, Katie, Hunter, Hedwig, and, last but not least, the visiting Technodjinn goddess, Alice - as they watched the Campers that Hera had chosen rushed to her rescue at the Wolf House, Ida had to barely keep a smile off her face as she looked at her former charge and the goddess she currently served. Andromeda had truly come so far from the wild child that she'd been assigned to look after and tame by Lord Zeus so she didn't offend the gods further and add to the litany of curses that she'd already been saddled with at that time.
If I have any complaint about Andi nowadays, it's her nudist tendencies. Ida mused as she eyed her currently nude goddess.
It was a minor complaint though and more a product of her own lack of comfort with the idea than anything she could fault Andi for. Her being a nudist was an involuntary consequence of the wild being her primary domain and could not be helped. If anything, that her former charge had so embraced this aspect of her nature without complaint despite it being such a departure from her former Human norms was a source of pride for the Oread.
"I'm honestly still surprised that they managed to defeat Enceladus at Mount Diablo." Wendy, Andi's partner and Aurae lieutenant, opined as she and the rest of the court, sans Ida herself, watched the events of the Half-blood Heroes as they made their way from their last fight with the Bane of Athena to the final fight of their Quest at the burned ruins of the house built by Jack London, a son of Mercury, where Lupa judged whether or not the Roman demigods left there were worthy and strong enough to endure her training and subsequently become a Legionary of New Rome's Legio XII Fulminata. "Pleasantly surprised but still surprised."
"They are Heroes. Winning against the odds is par for the course." The fully clothed Katie, Andi's Dryad lieutenant and a reincarnated Half-blood, said with a shrug in reply to the naked Aurae's comment. "I'm honestly more surprised by their ability to so easily secure transportation. It's not as easy as they make it look."
"Yes, that's true. Not everyone can use charmspeak to secure a helicopter or have the skill to fly it if they can manage the latter." Alice, who as always was dressed in a blouse and skirt combo, said with a nod.
At least, Andi's nudist tendencies are limited only to herself and Wendy, who as her partner has a deep connection to her. Ida thought to herself.
I am honestly surprised that the son of Hephaestus can fly the helicopter. Hedwig mused in a series of barks. Is the Technokinesis they inherit from the forge god that versatile?
It can be. Hunter, the Kyôn Khryseos, answered with a shrug. Each Half-blood inherits different things from their divine parents and even if they share the same ability, the extent of the power they inherit varies.
Fascinating.
"Isn't it, Hedwig?" Andi said as she reached out and patted her first friend on her head, causing the Owl Dragon to preen.
"However skilled in terms of utility skills they might be, I'm concerned with whether they can survive what they will face at the Wolf House." Ida spoke up, joining the conversation. "As strong as they have proven themselves by defeating Enceladus at Mount Diablo, it will be a tough fight."
"Yes, Porphyrion is in an entire league above Enceladus in terms of strength." Alice said with a worried frown.
"That assumes that they won't be able to stop Porphyrion's revival," Andi said, shooting her fellow goddess a look. "Alice, are you holding out on me? Did Sibyl tell you something?"
"I didn't need my twin's oracular powers to know they'll fail." The Conscience of the Technodjinn said with a roll of her eyes. "Considering how important Porphyrion is to her plans, do you think the Earth Mother would let his revival fail?"
Andi frowned before sighing. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense, but we can hope."
"Well, we'll have to see how it goes." Wendy said, pointing at the IM projections showing what was transpiring with the Heroes. "They're almost there."
"And coming in for a crash landing." Katie said with a disappointed sigh as the helicopter that the Half-bloods were in flew straight into a snow storm that surrounded the Wolf House and predictably crashed. "That storm…"
"Is conjured by an ally of the Gigantes." Andi said with narrowed eyes as the winds in the room picked up slightly in response to her anger.
"Yes," Alice said, reaching over to put a hand on Andi's shoulder to remind her to calm down. "But they haven't shown themselves so we can't make assumptions. We don't have enough evidence."
"Alice is right, Andi." Ida added. "We might have our suspicions but we need to wait for evidence before we can act."
Andi nodded as she forcibly calmed the winds she'd agitated with her anger.
"At least the Heroes can join the Hunters of Artemis as they try to fight through the monsters that have occupied the Wolf House and are guarding the ritual for Porphyrion's revival." Wendy said as they all watched the Questers leap from their crashed helicopter just before it exploded and found themselves in a battle between the Hunters and the army of monsters - made out of Earthborn, Ánemoi Thúellai, and Lycanthropes led by Lycaon himself - in service to the Earth Mother.
"Hmm… Alice, seeing the size of that monster army, I think I might have to agree with you about the Heroes' chances of preventing Porphyrion's revival." Andi said with an annoyed shake of his head.
"I'm sure that even if he is revived, things will work out somehow."
Andi just let out a non-committal huff that radiated her frustration.
"Oh! Thalia and Jason just reunited." Katie observed as indeed Thalia Grace rushed to greet the Questers as they stood around looking lost after making it out of the wreck of their helicopter.
"I don't see how that's a big deal? The two of them reunited for the first time earlier in their quest, right?" Wendy asked with an adorable tilt of her head that fully befit the child-like form she preferred and wore despite long already reaching adulthood.
Yes. Hunter replied. But they have been separated for so long that I imagine that the brief reunion they previously shared was hardly enough.
Shooting the lieutenant of Artemis, who in the absence of their goddess served as the Hunters' leader with a critical look, Alice added her two cents. "Perhaps, but I hope Thalia Grace can stay professional. Now isn't the time for another touching reunion."
Ida nodded in agreement. Now was indeed hardly the time for such things.
That said, she knew that Thalia Grace was a sensitive topic for her goddess and so watched her in concern as she frowned at the mentions of the other daughter of Zeus. An understandable reaction considering that she had tried her best to build a sisterly relationship with the older girl back during her mortal life, only to have been rebuffed at every turn. Even now, their relationship, at least on Thalia's part, was at best acrimonious and that was being generous. That the Hunter had not been smited so far was entirely due to Ida's goddess' apathy towards the sister that had spurned her.
Thankfully for Andi's temper, the Grace girl maintained her professionalism like Alice and Ida hoped and instead of having an emotional moment with her brother instead chose to brief him and his fellow Questers on the situation and begin guiding them through the ruined mansion that was the Wolf House to an outside courtyard with an empty reflecting pool. A pool at the bottom of which were two spires of rock and root tendrils that had cracked through the foundation.
The bigger of the spires was a solid dark mass about twenty feet high and looked like a stone body bag. Underneath the mass of fused tendrils it was possible to make out the shape of a head, wide shoulders, a massive chest and arms, like the creature was stuck waist deep in the earth. This was undeniably the rising, reviving form of Porphyrion.
On the opposite end of the pool, the other spire was smaller and more loosely woven. Each tendril was as thick as a telephone pole with little space between them. And in the center of the cage stood Lady Hera in the guise of a elderly woman with dark hair covered with a shawl, the black dress of a widow, a wrinkled face with glinting, and disturbingly sharp eyes.
That is Lady Hera? Hedwig asked in a surprised bark. Why has she taken that form?
"Judging by the son of Hephaestus' reaction, it's one he recognizes. I imagine she used it to interact with him in the past." Ida observed as she saw the familiar way that she addressed the Hispanic Valdez boy and she began arrogantly demanding that Thalia and the Questers hurry and free her.
Trapped and being drained of her essence to revive one of her mortal enemies and still unable to humble herself to politely ask for help? Ida thought with a shake of her head at Lady Hera's behavior. Behavior that quickly drove Thalia into rushing away to avoid being goaded by it into attacking the goddess instead of rescuing her.
Despite her behavior, Lady Hera was still the Queen of Olympus and rescuing her was not only the goal of their Quest but if they were able to do it quickly enough, it might also prevent Porphyrion's revival. Recognizing these facts, the Questers quickly began brainstorming how to free the Matron of Women from the earthen cage that she was trapped within.
However, the enemy would of course not let them do so without interference. However, just as Leo Valdez seemingly came up with an idea to free Lady Hera, the air turned brittle with cold. The temperature dropped so fast that the Half-bloods' lips cracked and their breath changed to mist. Frost coated the walls of the Wolf House. Horse shaped Ánemoi Thúellai with dark storm-cloud bodies and manes that crackled with lightning rushed in. Behind them came red-eyed wolves and the six-armed Earthborn. Some had silver arrows sticking out of their bodies, but despite these injuries, that they were here proved that they had defeated the Hunters of Artemis. No easy feat and something that proved just how much of a threat they were.
The Questers tensed and readied for battle but as they did, one of the wolves padded forward whilst dragging a human-size statue by the leg. At the edge of the pool, the wolf opened its maw and dropped the statue for them to see, revealing it to be Thalia Grace frozen in magical ice that rendered her a living ice sculpture. A fate that was infamously associated with a certain goddess.
This, of course, caused her brother to react angrily.
"Who did this?" Jason Grace yelled as his body crackled with electricity. "I'll kill you myself!"
His threat elicited a girl's laughter, clear and cold, from somewhere behind the monsters that had surrounded the courtyard. Out of the mist that had descended around the Wolf House due to the cold snap, stepped out a goddess with a mane of lush black hair, coffee-brown eyes, and unnaturally pale skin that was the color of snow. She was dressed in a deep blue dress and had a silver crown atop her long black hair.
"Khione," Andi hissed in a mix of anger and satisfaction as she stood from the bean bag that she'd been lounging on. "She's shown her true colors at last."
Standing even as the Heroes confronted Khione, rightfully identifying how she had been the one who had been responsible for many of the hurdles that they had faced on their Quest so far, Andi turned to her court. "Time to teach her that betrayal has a cost."
"You intend to intervene directly, Andi?" Ida asked, more for form's sake than genuine concern. She knew her goddess knew what she was doing.
Andi nodded. "With Khione showing her face, my intervening directly is entirely within the limits of the Ancient Laws."
"And what about Zeus' prohibition?" Alice asked even as she stood from her own wicker chair.
"That's against interacting with the mortal world, isn't it? But my stepping in now won't do that, will I?" Andi said with a smirk. "After all, with Hera being held prisoner by Gaea and her energy being used to fuel Porphyrion's revival, it's fine. I'm just rescuing another god from a Gigantes."
"Would that really fly with Zeus?"
"Don't know, don't care." Andi replied to her fellow goddess with a shrug. "If Father does make an issue, I'll deal with it."
Alice nodded in understanding.
"Wendy, suit up!"
"Yes, Andi!" Wendy said as she transformed into a breeze and wrapped herself around Andi, becoming her goddess' Storm Mail and cladding her in hoplite armor made out of the Aurae's winds. And much to Ida's hidden relief, concealed their nudity.
"Hunter, Hedwig, to me!"
Yes, Andi! Both divine beasts said in unison as they jumped to her feet and moved to stand next to Andi, all ready for battle.
"I guess I'll tag along too." Alice said as she summoned her gun and held it in a ready stance like a professional. She was as ready for battle as the heroic Half-bloods that were fighting against Khione and her monster army. A fight that saw Jason Grace take on and tame one of the Ánemoi Thúellais, Piper McLean slay Earthborn by the dozens, and Leo Valdez confront Khione."That way, you can say that you're going there to keep an eye on me. That should give you an additional excuse if Zeus makes an issue over defying his edict."
"Thanks, Alice." Andi said, shooting the Technodjinn a smile before turning to Ida and Katie who would be staying behind. "Ida, Katie, hold down the fort whilst we're away, okay?"
"Leave it to us, Andi." Katie said with a nod, hugging the Mimic flowerpot that held her pine tree plant self tight to her chest.
"Yes, trust us. We'll be waiting for your triumphant return." Ida told her goddess with a confident smile.
Andi smiled back and turned back to those of her court that would be accompanying her. "Let's go!"
After receiving nods from her two animal servants and Alice, Andi gathered her power and teleported them away.
And as they departed, Ida turned to Katie. "Shall we go prepare the victory feast?"
"Yup." Katie said with a smile and nod.
"You're too late," Andi heard Khione snarl just as her teleportation finished transporting her and her companions onto the Wolf House battlefield. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."
Andi materialized beside Khione with Skyline in its xiphos mode already in mid-swing and decapitated her. Just microseconds later, Alice appeared behind the headless goddess and disintegrated her falling corpse with a blast of her gun.
"That's what you get for setting up the whole ban on contact with the mortal world, Khione." Andi said as she spat on the steaming mound of mush that was all that remained of the goddess of snow. "I hope you take forever to reform."
Alice snorted. "You're still upset over the dry spell the ban caused I see."
"Hey! You stole my chance to get back at Khione!" Leo Valdez shouted at them angrily as he stalked towards them with a pair of blazing hammers in his hands.
"Suck it up, boy. I'm a goddess, my grudge gets priority."
"Oh yeah!? Goddess!? I don't recognize you! And even if I did, it wouldn't matter! You two might be hot but that doesn't give you the right to steal my kill!"
"Leo, was it?" Alice said, stepping in with a soothing voice and gesturing to the battle that was waging around them. Even with Hunter and Hedwig joining the fight alongside Jason Grace, now mounted on his freshly tamed equine shaped Ánemoi Thúellai, and Piper McLean, the sheer numbers of the enemies meant that the outcome was still very much in doubt. "I think we have other problems right now, don't you?"
"Yes, Leo Valdez! Listen to the machine girl! You have bigger problems! Like freeing me!" Hera shouted from her cage where she was increasingly sinking into the earth, no not sinking, the ground was rising around her like water in a tank. Liquid rock had already covered her shins.
"Right. I'll just go free Hera and you two can go help with the monsters and-"
Andi was just feeling angry at the son of Hephaestus' temerity to issue orders to her when the giant's spire crumbled with a sound like a tree snapping in half. Its outer sheath of tendrils exploded from the top down, raining stone and wood shards as Porphyrion shook himself free and climbed out of the earth.
The King of the Gigantes was taller than Enceladus and practically dwarfed Thoon, being at least forty feet tall in his currently weakened form. He was so large, muscular, and dense that it was like he had his own gravitational field. Like the other Gigantes, he was humanoid from the waist up and, like his brother Enceladus, he had his own set of bronze armor. His dragon legs were covered in green scales that were a lighter shade of the dark green of his humanoid upper body. He had green hair which was the same color as summer leaves, which were braided in long locks and decorated with quite a few weapons such as daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of which were covered in blood or bent, possible trophies taken from defeated opponents. His eyes were completely white and looked like polished marble. And last, but certainly not least, Porphyrion wielded a huge spear.
"Alive!" He bellowed as he first drew breath for the first time in thousands of years. "Praise to Gaea!"
"Change of plans! You and your friends go focus on freeing Hera. Leave the monsters to Hunter and Hedwig. Alice and I will handle Porphyrion." Andi ordered as she shifted Skyline from its xiphos mode into her preferred bow mode.
"Ready, Alice?" Her friend replied with a firm nod as Leo Valdez had enough sense to not argue and rushed to join Jason Grace and Piper McLean as they fought to free Hera.
"I'm with you, Andi." Alice said with a nod as she hefted her gun into a ready position.
With a nod of her own, Andi let loose with Skyline, shooting a dozen Αερο (Aero) arrows at Porphyrion. A salvo that was joined by a barrage of sickly green energy beams fired by Alice.
"Excellent!" The giant roared as he swept his spear in a wide arc in front of him, the weapon glowing as he did as it unleashed a wave of power that intercepted and negated the barrage that Andi and Alice shot at him. "An appetizer! Who are you? Artemis? Athena?"
"Andromeda Aurae, goddess of the wild, breezes, and Wizarding Magic." Andi said proudly as she channeled a επικαλούνται: κατάρρευση (Invoke: Implosion) into a single magic arrow.
"Alice, Conscience of the Technodjinn." Alice added as she pulled on her trigger at an insane rate, sending hundreds of sickly green energy bullets that streaked through the air at strange angles as they shot towards the Gigantes king.
Slamming the butt of his spear into the ground, Porphyrion let loose a wave of the dark green energy the same color of his skin to counter Andi and Alice's latest attacks. His white eyes bored into the two goddesses assessingly as he did. All the while, behind them Valdez pulled out a circular saw from his magical tool belt and plugging it into Jason Grace's Ánemoi Thúellai, used its electricity to power it, whilst McLean talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice as she used her charmspeak to convince it to not resist their attempt to free Hera.
As his attack negated Andi and Alice's latest attacks, Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!"
He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus, you are offering a couple of your goddesses as sacrifices to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."
In response, a lightning bolt slammed into the Gigantes, It did not however come from the sky. No, the sky didn't even rumble. It seemed that Father wasn't about to interfere in this fight. Whether that was out of fear, indifference, or confidence in them, Andi didn't know. She hoped it was the latter.
"Do not forget about me. I intend to fight you too." Jason Grace shouted loudly as he left his friends to the task of freeing Hera and joined the fight against Porphyrion.
"Oh? And who might you be?" Porphyrion asked as he casually negated the latest volley of wind arrows and energy beams that Andi and Alice shot at him with a energy wave he released with a sweep of his spear.
"I'm Jason Grace," Andi's Roman Half-blood brother said. "Son of Jupiter. If you knew who I was, you'd be worried about me, not my father or these goddesses. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."
The Gigantes' eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at Jason, simply raising a hand to block the massive beam of power that Andi and Alice had created by combining their power. "So ... we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, Demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tartarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen."
He grinned at the goddess's cage before adding. "Hello, Hera."
"Damn it! Stop ignoring us, Porphyrion!" Andi cried out angrily as she and Alice both continued to pour power into the beam they were using to attack the King of the Gigantes despite him seemingly effortlessly blocking it with naught by a raised hand.
The Gigantes paid her complaint no attention at all, instead smiling defiantly as he instead focused on Hera's reply.
"My husband destroyed you once, monster! He'll do it again!"
"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny Demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth- and we will destroy you at the roots."
"You wouldn't dare," Hera said, but she was weakening. Andi could hear it in her voice. McLean kept whispering to the cage, and Valdez kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, covering her up to her waist.
"Oh, yes," the Gigantes said. "The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees- your eldest roots torn out and burned."
"Over my dead body!" Andi shouted angrily as she teleported in front of Porphyrion's face and fired a επικαλούνται: κατάρρευση arrow at the Gigantes. Too close to defend himself against it, the Bane of Zeus had no choice but to withstand the attack and had to endure it as a targeted point in space in between his eyes, distorted and proceeded to draw everything around it in through a powerful vortex.
It was a powerful attack. One that could take down all but the most powerful monsters. However, Porphyrion was no mere monster. Thus, all that her κατάρρευση managed to accomplish was to cause him to flinch back with a wince. That was all the opening that Alice needed and as the King of the Gigantes was staggered, she fired a massive energy beam with enough force to send him stumbling back.
"You pests are starting to annoy me!" Porphyrion recovered as he recovered enough of his wits to bring his spear up and deflect Alice's beam, causing her to cut it off altogether. "My servants! Help me deal with them!"
At his call, the Earthborn, Ánemoi Thúellai, and Lycanthropes that had been driven back by Hunter and Hedwig's efforts regathered.
"Hunter, Hedwig! Keep them back!" Andi shouted to her animal servants who shouted back their wordless acknowledgement as they redoubled their efforts at fighting the monsters that saw Hunter ripping into them with tooth and claw whilst Hedwig relied mainly on her newly acquired Aerokinesis to cut down the enemy. An enemy that despite their best efforts were unable to make any headway at forcing their way into the courtyard.
"Useless monsters!" Porphyrion hissed in anger at his reinforcements failing to do what he wanted them to. "Must I do everything myself?"
At the angry statement, the Bane of Zeus suddenly surrounded himself in a dark green aura before his arm blurred forward and literally grabbed Andi out of the sky. She tried to struggle but before she could so much as stretch her muscles to push against the hand trying to crush her, Porphyrion threw her with the force of a railgun into the ground. She crashed into the ground not far from the cage imprisoning Hera in a massive explosion of dust.
An impact that was harsh enough that caused her Storm Mail to fail, forcing Wendy to revert to her true form and collapse beside her.
"Argh!" Andi cried out as she coughed out golden ichor and tried to push her naked body back to her feet.
"Andi! Stay down!" Alice said as she teleported next to her, pushing Andi onto her back, her gun transformed into some kind of healing device. "Let me heal you."
"N-No… Porphyrion-" Andi said as she struggled to push herself to her feet and as Hunter and Hedwig struggled to try to make their way towards her, only to be held back by wave after wave of monsters.
"Yo, hot, naked, goddess! Just relax. Leave it to Jason." Valdez said as he pointedly looked away and continued using his circular saw to cut away at the tendrils of the cage that trapped Hera.
"Yes, leave it to Jason. He'll win." McLean added as she took a second away from using her charmspeak to assist Valdez's efforts by trying to charm it into weakness.
Glancing at Porphyrion as he was confronted by Jason, Andi saw as her mortal half-brother literally half flew, half leapt onto the giant's scaly reptilian knee and began climbing up the Gigantes' arm.
"You dare?" The Bane of Zeus bellowed as Jason reached his shoulders and ripped a sword out of the giant's weapon-filled braids before with a warcry of "For Rome!", he drove the sword into the nearest convenient target: Porphyrion 's massive ear.
Lightning streaked out of the sky and blasted the sword, throwing Jason free. He rolled when he hit the ground. As he recovered, the Gigantes staggered. His hair was on fire, and the side of his face was blackened from lightning. The sword had splintered in his ear, causing golden ichor to run down his jaw and the other weapons to spark and smolder in his braids.
In fact, Porphyrion almost fell. Something that agitated his surrounding monstrous minions and they let out a collective growl and increased their efforts to fight past Hunter and Hedwig.
"No!" The Gigantes yelled. He regained his balance and glared at the demigod. "I will kill him myself."
The giant raised his spear and it began to glow. "You want to play with lightning, boy? You forget. I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you."
Porphyrion wasn't bluffing, Andi could tell as much.
"Alice! Heal me faster!" Andi shouted urgently as she tried to push herself to her feet, only to find that she lacked the strength to do so, collapsing onto her back when she tried.
"I'm no healer! I'm working as quickly as I can!" Alice shouted back, sounding harried.
Alice was too slow though. Andi knew that much. Her friend wasn't just not a healer, she wasn't a true fighter either. Neither was her calling. There was no way she would be able to save Jason even if she stopped healing her and rushed to help Jason. Thus, they could only look on hopelessly as Porphyrion raised his spear. There was just no way that her half-brother could deflect this strike.
However, just as Andi was resigning herself to see the boy die right in front of her eyes, salvation came from an unexpected corner. "Got it!"
"Sleep!" Piper said, so forcefully, the nearest monsters fell to the ground and began snoring.
Just then the stone and wood cage imprisoning Hera crumbled. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage's connection to Gaea. The tendrils turned to dust and as the mud around Hera disintegrated, the goddess immediately grew in size, glowing with power.
"Yes!" Hera said triumphantly. She threw off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewelry. Her face was both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glowed in her long black hair. "Now I shall have my revenge!"
Porphyrion backed away at the sight. He said nothing, but he gave Jason one last look of hatred. His message was clear: Another time. Then he slammed his spear against the earth, and the Gigantes disappeared into the ground like he'd dropped down a chute.
Around the courtyard, monsters began to panic and retreat, but there was no escape for them.
Hera glowed brighter. She shouted, "Cover your eyes, my heroes!"
Then without any further warning Hera turned into a supernova, exploding in a ring of force that vaporized every enemy monster instantly.
"Honestly, Hera! Couldn't you have used something less indiscriminate to drive off Porphyrion?" Alice heard Andi scold Hera as they stood around the dead body of Jason Grace. The boy had been killed by looking upon Hera's true form that she had unleashed to send the King of the Gigantes fleeing and destroy his monstrous army. A burst of power that also removed all trace of the winter that Khione had brought with her, freed the Hunters from their ice, and restored the Wolf House.
"You tried that, Andromeda. It wasn't working." Hera sniped back.
"That's besides the point! Jason is dead because you decided to go straight to the nuclear option." Andi shot back.
"She's right." Thalia Grace added as she glared at Hera. "This is your fault. Do something!"
"Do not address me that way, girl. I am the Queen-"
"Fix him!" Thalia demanded, uncaring of Hera's ire.
Hera's eyes flickered with power. "I did warn him. I would never intentionally hurt the boy. He was to be my champion. I told them to close their eyes before I revealed my true form."
"Um ..." Leo frowned. "True form is bad, right? So why did you do it?"
"I unleashed my power to help you, fool!" Hera cried. "I became pure energy so I could disintegrate the monsters, restore this place, and even save these miserable Hunters from the ice."
"But mortals can't look upon you in that form!" Thalia shouted. "You've killed him!"
Leo shook his head in dismay. "That's what our prophecy meant. Death unleash, through Hera's rage. Come on, lady. You're a goddess. Do some voodoo magic on him! Bring him back."
"Could you all just shut up!" Alice snapped uncharacteristically, silencing everyone. "If you want this boy to live, give Wendy and I some silence to work in peace!"
"Um, Lady Alice… is it alright to talk to Hera like that?" Wendy asked, eyeing the Queen of Olympus nervously.
"It is if you can revive the boy. Can you, Technodjinn?"
"Yes. Seeing your true form just stopped his heart, not reduced him to ash like Zeus' did to Semele. I can revive him with my AED (automated external defibrillator)." Alice said as she activated the system built into her body and placed her hands over Jason's chest like a conventional AED's electrodes.
Honestly… That he didn't get disintegrated… Was that because he's a Half-blood or is he just that unnaturally tough?
"You have a built-in AED? Damn! I'm totally going to add one to my gear going forward."
Ignoring the son of the forge, Alice addressed Wendy. "Wendy, can you follow up by healing him with your Phoenix Feather?"
"Sure. I can handle that." The Aurae agreed readily, the magical feather pinned to her hair glowing with a flaming aura as she primed its power.
"McLean, use your charmspeak to coax him back to life as well." Andi urged. "Can't say how much it'll help, but if it was powerful enough to influence Gaea, it should offer some help."
"Right." Piper said with a nod as she hurriedly fell to her knees besides Jason and began to use her charmspeak on the dead boy. "Jason, come back to us."
As the daughter of Aphrodite used her powers to ease her effort, Alice also began doing her part in Jason's revival. Using the AED built into her hands, through a series of multiple shocks, she steadily coaxed his heart back to life. Between her ministrations and Piper's efforts, Jason's heart was soon once more beating regularly.
"His heart is beating." Alice announced. "Wendy, take over!"
"Yes, Lady Alice!" The Aurae said as she stretched her hands over Jason's prone body and began channeling her healing power into him.
"Most impressive, Technodjinn." Hera praised, looking like she was pulling teeth. Clearly she was reluctant to offer compliments to someone outside her pantheon.
Alice just shrugged. "It's nothing really. Nothing I did was anything that anyone with mundane tools wouldn't have been able to do."
"Somehow I doubt that." Hera said with a shake of her head. "You, a goddess, were using a divine version of a mundane device. That has significance."
"I suppose so." Alice said with a shrug.
Further conversation was set aside when with a gasp, Jason's eyes flew open. For a moment they were filled with a pure gold light. Then the light faded and his eyes were normal again.
"What- What happened?" He asked as he looked around him in confusion, quickly noticing Andi and Wendy's nudity and blushing brilliantly as he hastily looked away.
His girlfriend Piper might've been offended at his wandering eye but thankfully she was too happy about his revival to seem to have even noticed. Instead, she wrapped him in a hug until he groaned, "Crushing me."
"Sorry," she said, so relieved, she laughed while wiping a tear from her eye.
Thalia gripped her brother's hand. "How do you feel?"
"Hot," he muttered. "Mouth is dry. And I saw something... really terrible."
"That was Hera," Thalia grumbled. "Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon."
Does she have a death wish? Alice thought, her eyes widening in surprise. I think I know why she's on such bad terms with Andi now. This girl just doesn't have a filter between her brain and mouth. I can totally see her saying things she knew she shouldn't.
"That's it, Thalia Grace," said the goddess. "I will turn you into an aardvark, so help me-"
"Stop it, you two," Piper said. Amazingly, they both shut up. A turn of events that brought a smile of amusement to Andi's face and one of shock to Alice's own and Wendy's too.
Ignoring all that, Piper helped Jason to his feet and gave him the last nectar from their supplies.
"Now ..." Piper faced Thalia and Hera. "Hera- Your Majesty- we couldn't have rescued you without the Hunters. And Thalia, you never would've seen Jason again- I wouldn't have met him- if it weren't for Hera. You two make nice, because we've got bigger problems."
They both glared at her, and for three long seconds, looked like they were ready to kill the daughter of Aphrodite. Alice honestly wasn't sure who was going to make an attempt first.
"And what about me, Alice and Wendy? Didn't we help too?"
"Uh- Right." Piper said with a blush. "Thank you, Lady Andromeda, Lady Alice, and Miss Wendy. Just, um, Lady Andromeda, Miss Wendy, could you put on some clothes?"
"It was my pleasure to help." Alice said, offering the girl a smile.
"Same. Right, Wendy?"
"Yup."
"As for putting on clothes? Nope, no can do. I'm the goddess of the wild. If I want to go nude like a creature of the wild, that's what I'll do. No one gets the right to tell me otherwise."
"Oh. I like you, Lady Andromeda." Leo said with a cheeky grin.
Andi shot the horny boy a look. "That said, just because I'm naked doesn't mean I appreciate being ogled. A look or two is fine, it's natural, but leer and I'm liable to take offense."
Leo was smart enough to identify the threat in Andi's words and with a fearful gulp, he nodded and looked away. "G-Got it, my lady! I-I'll be polite."
"Piper," Thalia said, cutting into the conversation.
"Y-Yes?" The daughter of Aphrodite jumped, clearly finally realizing that she might have offended the powerful lieutenant of Artemis.
Instead of gutting her for the disrespectful tone she used towards her earlier though, she instead pulled a silver card from her parka and tucked it into the pocket of Piper's snowboarding jacket. "You've got spirit, Piper. You ever want to be a Hunter, call me. We could use you."
"Fortunately for this Hunter, you have a point, daughter of Aphrodite." Hera said as with her arms crossed, she assessed Piper, as if seeing her clearly for the time. "You wondered, Piper, why I chose you for this Quest, why I didn't reveal your secret in the beginning, even when I knew Enceladus was using you. I must admit, until this moment I was not sure. Something told me you would be vital to the Quest. Now I see I was right. You're even stronger than I realized. And you are correct about the dangers to come. We must work together."
Piper blushed and by her silence, she wasn't sure how to respond to Hera's compliment, but Leo stepped in.
"Yeah," he said, "I don't suppose that Porphyrion guy just melted and died, huh?"
"No," Hera agreed. "By saving me, and saving this place, you prevented Gaea from waking. You have bought us some time. But Porphyrion has risen. He simply knew better than to stay here, especially since he has not yet regained his full power. Gigantes can only be killed by a combination of god and demigod, working together."
"Which were already on the board." Andi pointed out from where she was leaning against Hedwig's side with Hunter lounging at her feet, clearly feeling annoyed by Hera's attempt to downplay her contribution to the day's events.
"Ah! But you were being beaten to a pulp, were you not, Andromeda?" Hera noted snidely.
Andi shot her a glare but could not deny that she, and Alice herself, had not acquitted herself well in their fight with Porphyrion.
"Back to Porphyrion," Jason spoke up hastily, obviously trying to avoid an argument between Hera and Andi breaking out. "He ran away, didn't he? But where exactly?"
Hera didn't answer and Alice did not step up to clarify things either. She remembered what Porphyrion had said about killing the Olympians by pulling up their roots and that could only mean one thing: he was heading to Greece. Judging by Piper and Thalia's looks though, they had figured it out on their own.
"I need to find Annabeth," Thalia said. "She has to know what's happened here."
"Thalia..." Jason gripped her hand. "We never got to talk about this place, or-"
"I know." Her expression softened. "I lost you here once. I don't want to leave you again. But we'll meet soon. I'll rendezvous with you back at Camp Half-Blood." She glanced at Hera. "You'll see them there safely? It's the least you can do."
"It's not your place to tell me-"
"Queen Hera," Piper interceded.
The goddess sighed. "Fine. Yes. Just off with you, Hunter!"
Thalia gave Jason a hug and said her good-byes. When the Hunters were gone, the courtyard seemed strangely quiet. The dry reflecting pool showed no sign of the earthen tendrils that had brought back the giant king or imprisoned Hera. The night sky was clear and starry. The wind rustled in the redwoods. It was quite the pleasant tableau to be honest.
"We'll be making our move too, Hera." Andi said, breaking the silence, gesturing to Alice to join her where she and her servants were standing together. "Stop by my palace after you drop the Questers back at Camp, would you? We need to talk."
"I don't answer to you, Andromeda. It's very much the other way around." Hera snapped as Alice obliged Andi's request and stepped to her friend's side. "But yes, I will drop by shortly. Just let me send the Questers home first."
Andi nodded and surrounded them in her power in the form of her winds, before teleporting them back to her palace.
"Are you really going to stay nude even when having me over for tea?" Hera asked haughtily as she teleported into the seat that Andi had her servants set up across from her own at the wrought iron table in a pavilion in her palace garden.
"Need I repeat what I said to the Half-bloods, Hera?" Andi asked as she cocked an eyebrow and took a sip of her tea.
Hera let out a sigh. "Well, I suppose not. The wild is your primary domain…"
"Good. Then let's get down to business shall we?"
"Before that, shouldn't the Technodjinn be here? She is here as part of your alliance with them against our common foe that is the Earth Mother and her Gigantes children."
"Yes, and I'm here." Alice said as she teleported into a waiting seat at the table, picking up her cup of tea to take a sip as she did. "I was off checking on something."
"And what is that?"
"How's Percy?" Andi asked, providing the answer to Hera's inevitable question before she could even ask it.
"He's still making his way to Camp Jupiter." Alice said with a shrug. "He's having trouble, but managing, but that's nothing new. It's basically the same situation he's been since he woke up from the trance Hera put him in after she kidnapped him."
Hera blinked in surprise at that. "You've been exploiting the fact that the Technodjinn do not fall under Olympus' jurisdiction to intervene in the mortal world and track Jackson's progress?"
"Yes, on tracking Percy's progress. As for Father's prohibition, I use that and more. Not that it's a surprise. I'm sure everyone is using every trick they can come up with to do the same." Andi said without shame.
Hera sighed. "I suppose you're right."
"Glad you agree. But more importantly Hera, it seems your plan to unite the Camps is working out so far."
"Yes, it is." Hera said with a proud grin.
"Oh, don't be so smug yet, Hera." Andi said sternly. As much as she wanted to avoid offending her stepmother, with what was at stake, she could not afford to allow the goddess of marriage, family, air, the sky and the stars of heaven to get overconfident. "Getting Camp Half-blood onboard was always going to be easier than Camp Jupiter. The Greeks are more flexible and open to new ideas, things will be a tougher sell to the Romans."
"I am aware. However, it is a hopeful sign. Besides, don't you have faith in Percy Jackson, Andromeda? Wasn't he your friend?"
"That he is my friend doesn't matter. The stakes are too high for friendship to let that overly influence things."
"Yet it does influence your opinion?"
"I won't deny it does." Andi said honestly.
"Is that why you are interfering? You do know that you risk a heavy reprimand from Zeus for your actions?" Hera warned.
"I intervene because it is necessary but only as far as the Ancient Laws and Father's prohibition allows."
"Zeus might say otherwise on the latter count."
"If he thinks so, he can explain himself to Lady Yuno." Alice piped up. "Zeus' decree is backed by the Ancient Laws is it not? Considering that, as the aforementioned Ancient Laws are administered and empowered by the Overgods, that they have not acted against Andi is proof they support our actions."
"Good point, Alice. We can check with her this Saturday during our D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) session." Andi said with a smirk.
Hera sucked in a breath. "So you're playing that card?"
"If I need to." Andi said, looking at Hera whilst still wearing her cheeky smirk.
"So you're not going to stop interfering with my plans?"
"No," Andi said with a firm shake of her head. "I will not hold back when it is required. Emphasis on 'when it is required'. I understand the need to let the mortals learn from hardship and even their own mistakes."
"That's the best I suppose I can ask." Hera said with a sigh. "To be honest, I envy your daring. I wish I was as willing to take the risks of consequences of intervention that you seem inclined to."
Andi shrugged. "I just happen to have more loopholes and gray areas open to me than you, or most gods, do."
"I suppose so. But I think that covers everything." Hera said as she stood. "I'll trust your judgment."
Andi nodded.
"Thank you for the tea." Hera said before teleporting away.
"I take it that means we have her approval to intervene in her plan at our discretion?"
"Yes," Andi agreed with a nod. "Let's just hope we don't need to intervene much. If we did, it would mean that Hera's plan was failing and that means the potentially dire consequences might be upon us."
"Let's hope that doesn't happen."
"Yes, let's hope so." Andi said with a sigh as she stood and offered Alice an arm. "But let's not worry about that for now. Let's go join the victory feast that Ida and Katie prepared for us, shall we?"
"We shall," Alice said with a giggle as she looped an arm around her offered arm and they teleported away to join the celebrations her servants had prepared for the victory at the Wolf's House.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Hera's okay? Hera's okay! Whelp, seems Andi earned some brownie points on that front, even from the tsundere that is Hera. Or is she more a Yandere? Oh well, she's okay and the Bane of Zeus is out of commission for a bit. Though Andi got to meet her new mortal brother, briefly, but that's okay too.
Nameless: Hope you guys liked our rendition of The Lost Hero from a godly perspective. We borrowed quite a bit from canon's version Battle of the Wolf's House but we added our own take on things. Was it good? Feel free to let us know.
Also Andi and Alice continue to be cute together. Truly they are going to be a power couple. Of friends, a platonic power couple. Maybe? Who knows~ XP
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!