Juliette has reached breaking points in the past. But she's always had a reason to stop.
Her friends and siblings. The outcome of a quest. Jason.
There's always been a reason to stop. To calm down. To keep things from going too far.
Right now, though, Julie has none of that. She's on the bottom of the ocean, cold, angry, grieving, and she's being told no.
"You want my what?" She hisses, honestly sort of offended. How the fuck is this what the issue is? This has got to be a joke.
Triton shakes his head and waves his guards away from her. They remove their weapons from the perimeter of her bubble and fall into formation behind him, ready to move on.
"Unless you have been granted a vacation visa and are capable of presenting proof of short stay, you will not be entering my father's kingdom." The sea deity sniffs at her like she's an idiot, curling his lip. "Things are done here in an organized manner. My apologies if such policies are foreign to you. Your kind has never been known for intelligence."
Oh, he did not just fucking-
"Rosa, it's okay," offers Jason. He brushes a cold breeze against her shoulder. Probably in an attempt to get her to back down. "We have time. Just...ask him how we get one. I'm sure we can handle it."
But how much time do they have? Really?
Hazel's warning has been lingering in Juliette's mind since they left Camp Jupiter. Deianira and Beryl Grace have been peering at Julie from the depths of every shadow that she glimpses. Just how much time do they have before Jason is in danger of a fate worse than death?
She looks at him now. She can see fish swimming behind him through the translucent glaze of his skin. Remembering how he'd looked when she'd woken up on the floor of Caligula's throne room...
He's been in her shoes, frantic to rescue her at any cost necessary. On a ticking time limit. So why doesn't he understand her urgency right now?
"We are not leaving and coming back," She snaps, glaring. "That's stupid."
Jason frowns at her and gestures at the god blocking their path.
Juliette feels her temper getting hotter. "I'm working on it, okay?! Just give me a minute to think."
"Rosa, he's a god. I've read about him. Triton can be brutal-"
"Give me a minute."
"If you've no documentation, then it is time you moved on, halfbreed. Lord Poseidon has no time to waste on your pathetic squabbles-"
"Did you not just hear me say shut the fuck up?!"
"I have had enough of this insolence," Snarls the god. Triton raises his trident to her chest, and his guards follow suit. "You will leave, or you will perish."
Juliette releases a shout of anger, desperate and impatient. She twists her fingers into her wet hair. What the fuck? What the fuck?
Why does nothing ever go her way anymore?!
"Begin your ascent," Triton warns darkly, eyes a furious sea green. "I will not say it again."
"Juliette," pleads Jason. "Please. Let's just go. We can come back when-"
The tip of one guards' trident enters the bubble and scrapes her impenetrable skin. Shoulder to elbow. It leaves a scratch across one Tiberii donum that she feels drag down her bones.
Juliette obeys no god.
"I'm not going ANYWHERE!"
How many times has Jules dragged Percy into trouble?
Definitely less times than he's done the dragging. Actually, he can't think of many off the top of his head. She's weirdly well behaved at home. Even back when she was little and Percy was more of a babysitter than a friend, she never gave him all that much trouble.
Some sass here or there. Annoying stuff like taking up every bathroom drawer with a ridiculous amount of makeup she doesn't even need. For the most part, though, Percy's been the problem child.
Who's surprised?
Anyone?
Yeah, he didn't expect so.
Percy's flutter kicks are carrying him hundreds of miles per hour. Gone are the warm shallows of Camp Halfblood's coastline. He's in deep waters now, deep enough that his vision has turned to blue-and-grayscale as he follows close behind his hippocampus friend.
Rainbow checks behind himself for Percy once again, just to make sure he's still there, he guesses. The fish-horse seems agitated. Every few flaps of his tailfin, he whinnies a 'Must hurry!' back at Percy.
Which isn't anxiety-inducing at all. Gods, if this is yet another errand for his dad, Percy is going to lose his mind. He thought he was finally done for the year now that he's accepted into NRU. He was so excited to just coast through the remainder of senior year.
But nope. Once again, Olympus has delighted in waiting until Percy found something of his own to worry about to throw yet another (probable) quest down at his feet. Because what are demigods good at if not multitasking?
On the bright side, this trip towards Atlantis is going better than the last couple that he's taken. Instead of getting flushed through the floor of his high school counselor's office, Percy is getting to really stretch his muscles for once.
He loves swim team, don't get him wrong. Any dip in a body of water bigger than a bathtub makes his fish-heart happy. But Percy tends to aim for second place most of the time to avoid any suspicions. Getting to torpedo through the Panama Canal at Mach 5 is much more fun. He feels like he just worked out quite a bit of stiffness from his upper back too.
But he's still worried.
Maybe Jules doesn't cause trouble for Percy often, but that doesn't mean she doesn't attract it. All of them do, especially the stronger kids at camp. And, as much as he teases her on the day to day, Juliette has always fallen into that category.
She's no Big Three kid, sure, but there's a reason that Luke went after her - why he sought her out before even Nico and Bianca. If she had a different heart or was any less stubborn, Percy might have died the day that Luke shoved him down at her feet.
She's tough, that kid.
And Luke hasn't been the only scumbag attracted to the power that she carries. Ever since he brought Jules home to live with his mom and him, it's like the number of weekly monster attacks tripled. Percy doesn't think it quite hit him how many weren't there for him until Jules started this weird disappearing act and half his pursuers just moved on. His drives to school are so uneventful now. Boring.
He never thought he'd say that he misses cleaning harpy poop off the hood of his Prius.
"What's he need this time?" asks Percy, sighing. He swims a bit to the side so Rainbow's tailfin will stop almost smacking him in the face. "Did some other god lose something that'll end the world if I don't find it in three days? Is some huge monster about to blow up New York again?" He's being sarcastic if that wasn't clear. Just to be sure, he adds on, "He need his lawn mowed?"
Rainbow doesn't seem amused by his attempt at conversation. His pace doesn't break. He's leading Percy up and down ravines in the ocean floor. Around pockets of corals. Across weak and heavy currents. Through caverns and into trenches. They're going so fast that Percy's cheeks are being left behind. He has to focus on keeping his mouth closed so he doesn't end up swallowing a school of minnows.
Percy doesn't think he's ever swam this fast. Now, he thinks he's going to have to more often. This is fucking fun, not holding back for once. It makes him wonder just where his real limits might lie. He's never really tested how far his powers can go.
Not above the Pit, anyway.
Then, just as Percy is getting adjusted to this newfound freedom, Rainbow stops.
The cloud of sediment Percy accidentally kicks up after slamming on the emergency breaks nearly suffocates him. It takes a few seconds of waving sand out of the water before he can look to his equestrian companion for details.
He doesn't need to. The moment he looks past the cloud of sediment, Percy's stomach drops.
Oh. So, that's why his father is calling him. Riptide is in his hand in an instant.
Atlantis' construction was mostly finished the last time he was here, and with it, he'd gotten to appreciate the solution Poseidon had come up with for preventing any future wars from flattening it again.
The City of the Seas (aka, the home of Percy's very unwelcoming stepfamily) had been rebuilt into a grid system of towering marble turrets and palaces, almost exactly mirroring NYC's familiar streets and alleys. But, like, in marble. It all tapered up to the center point - Poseidon's palace, a barnacle and starfish encrusted, white marble, open windowed replica of the Empire State Building.
The last time Percy briefly visited, the streets had been bustling with impatient business mermaids stuck in traffic in seahorse-drawn chariots. Conch shell horns had been sounding off every few seconds. Live siren choirs had been singing over one another in every restaurant he passed, and the entire city seemed to be lit up by more than just the bioluminescent corals on every corner.
It's silent and tense this time. There are no mer-people out on the streets. No horns are blasting. No choirs are singing.
And that's not even the most disturbing part of this strangely abandoned city of Percy's father's.
"Where did the barrier go?" He mumbles to himself.
It certainly went somewhere.
Percy's heart is pounding. He's standing at the threshold of what should be a shimmering green magical veil to protect Atlantis from intruders. Only those with express permission from the Atlantian government (or Poseidon's blood in their veins) should be able to pass through it. He's seen it in action before. It works. And it's really cool too.
But, no. Percy is standing inches in front of where it should be. And he can see the "Welcome to Atlantis" sign on the other side as clear as day.
That is definitely not good.
He looks at Rainbow. No wonder the guy came after him. Something is very wrong here.
"Wait here, buddy."
He probably didn't even need to tell him. The hippocampus looks pretty glued to his spot outside the city.
Percy turns back to Atlantis and begins to swim forward.
This is more swim-meet speed. As huge as the city is, he's dragging his feet. The water here feels off. It's making that spot behind his belly button twist in discomfort. But he can still breathe, so there's no reason not to keep going.
Percy looks around every corner he passes. The alleyways are silent and dark. He peeks into a few businesses as he paddles by. There's a restaurant with food still on the tables - clams and kelp salads. Baskets of urchins and herbs are sitting innocently in a grocery store's aisles, no shoppers nearby to be seen.
His focus returns to his father's palace, instincts alight. What is going on here?
Usually, when he visits Poseidon, there are guards patrolling the streets near the palace. This time, Percy swims right past without anyone to greet him. It's weird. Creepy. He swims right up the empty elevator shaft to his father's throne room at the top of the tower, kicking himself.
He really thought this was going to be nothing important. How stupid is he?
Still, though, somehow his worry for his father is outweighing his irritation. Percy emerges from the elevator shaft.
There are a number of things he could have expected, even while trying to stay prepared for anything.
Percy wasn't expecting to find his little sister on one knee before his father's throne room, trying to pry apart the doors with the broken handle of a golden trident.
Oh. Hello, there.
Percy's sword feels heavy in his hand. His stomach does a cartwheel. What on Olympus is he walking in on right now?
The last time he saw Juliette, he was leaving her in the woods with a feral 12 year-old demigod and the fallen Lord of the Sun. She'd seemed up to the task. Between the two of them, at least a dozen campers at CHB have the Jackson family to thank for their safe (if somewhat clumsy) delivery to Chiron. He'd left her there with an "I'll be right back" kind of mindset. It wasn't that big of a deal. He just really didn't want to end up buying back the Prius from some towing place in the dead of night.
It really hadn't felt at the time like he was making one of the worst mistakes of his life.
And now, with her back turned to him, long reddish blonde hair floating in what seems to be a pocket of swirling fresh air around her, Percy finds that he has no idea what to say.
It's been months. She's wearing Jason's clothes, but she's down here alone.
How did she even get down here? They're at the bottom of the ocean. Inside the palace of one of the Three Eldest Gods.
Where has she been all this time?
And why won't Percy's instincts let him put away his sword?
"Jules?"
She suddenly gasps. The trident falls from her grasp, floating down to thunk onto the marble floors, and she spins on the spot, standing.
It takes a little bit for her eyes to find him at the other end of the room. Percy spends that time trying not to throw up.
Why does she look like that?
She doesn't look like his sister.
His grip tightens on his sword, and he swallows down bile when their gazes connect.
No...that's her. Right?
Damn. What are the odds that today was the day he would find her? The day that he finally admitted defeat and spilled all of his worries to Annabeth on the lake.
But, then again...Is he sure that that's her?
"Percy..." She gasps out, looking like she also has no idea what to say at the moment. At least they have that in common.
Her voice sounds strangely echoed. Most sound does underwater. He knows it's from his brain trying to translate what noise can reach him through the depths into actual legible language - it's the same when he's speaking with his father - but it makes the uncanny-ness of this situation even stronger. Percy's knuckles feel locked around Riptide's pommel. He stares at Jules in her too-big, purple Camp Jupiter t-shirt (the same that he was wearing when Annabeth judo flipped him with relief after months) and tries to process what exactly is different about her from that last day in the woods outside of camp.
Is it her hair?
No, that looks about the same.
She's missing her bow, but Apollo has that. He knew that already.
She has more scars. Percy would be the last person to point that out as unusual, though. He has about a million, even if that one from her jaw to the base of her neck looks uncomfortably close to a fatal battle wound.
Maybe she's just taller again. Maybe his brotherly instincts are just too used to "sister" meaning "poopy diaper" after a month with Estelle. If Jules has no poopy diapers to ruin his day with, what is the worst that a sixteen year old can throw at him?
"Hey," He says lamely.
She purses her lips.
Poseidon's main floor is dark for the most part, as all the ocean beings that live this deep tend to do fine at seeing in the dark. There's only a few bioluminescent (that word was on his SATs) pockets of corals casting a dim orange hue throughout it.
Jules is studying him as thoroughly as he is her. The only difference is in their reactions. While Percy is for some reason feeling like he's facing Kronos again inside the throne room of Olympus, whatever Juliette sees in him drops some of the tension in her shoulders.
She eventually blinks and turns away. Percy can't help but feel a bit dismissed.
"You should go."
Oh, okay, that feeling was spot on then.
"I-You-I shoul-What?"
Jules doesn't even glance over her shoulder, kneeling again and retrieving the battered trident from the tiles. "You should go, Percy," She repeats. "I'm not going to drop the cloud, and you can't hold it back forever. I'd rather not give you some kind of permanent lung damage...or gill dama-whatever it is you breathe through down here."
The cloud?
Percy squints at her in confusion, taking a step closer. "What are you-?"
"Don't!"
He freezes in place at the warning in her voice. Juliette has whipped around, a palm raised at him like she's directing his lane of traffic. She looks annoyed. And worried. Once he's not moving, she lowers her hand.
"It's stronger the closer to me you are," She explains, raising her makeshift crowbar up and wagging it pointedly. "I'm not stopping, okay? I've got a job to do, and you aren't going to talk me out of it."
Job?
"Jules, what in Gaea's unibrow are you talking about?" Percy exclaims, throwing out his arms. "I have no idea what's going on! I just got here, and everyone was missing!"
Juliette narrows her eyes suspiciously. "He didn't send you?"
"Who?!" Percy's voice is coming out higher pitched than intended, but he's a bit worked up. "The only person I've even seen is Rainbow! So, unless you count 'follow me!' as a quest prophecy, then no! He wasn't really very descriptive."
She studies him. Hard. Eyes impassive, holding the trident tightly in her grip, shadows on what bits of her face aren't lit up orange from the corals. The pocket of wind spiraling around her sputters and shrinks down closer. A breeze from it tosses her hair into her face. That forces her to snort in surprise and break the weird intensity she's reading Percy's posture with.
She huffs a laugh, and her eyes fall down to the palace floor.
Riptide is humming anxiously in Percy's hand. Why does it feel like he's swallowed a hive of bees?
"Where have you been?"
He tries to ask the question in a way that doesn't sound so naggy. He wants to know because he's been worried, not because she's been shirking her chores (although, that hasn't been awesome either).
The question makes her laugh. Loudly. A burst of sound that causes her to slap a hand over her mouth. She's grinning behind it.
That reaction is honestly worse than if she'd told him she murdered someone. Or started crying. This, Percy understands wayyyy too well, and it makes his chest constrict.
Sometimes, after months of suffering, trying to give someone a simple summary of your time in Hell can't be anything but hilarious.
"How much time do you have?" She smirks at him, leaning on the battered trident like it's a cane, shifting her weight off of the false leg on her right side. It draws Percy's eyes.
"Nice leg," He nods. 'Cause it is. It's gold. That's bitchin.
"Oh," She says in surprise, showcasing it. "This old thing?" Jules grins in bemusement. "Thanks. Woke up with it after trying to murder Thalia and Leo. Allegedly."
Percy blinks at her. Riptide hums. It's his turn for a burst of laughter, though.
"Damn. Okay. Are you hungry?"
She raises an eyebrow at him, and Percy jabs a thumb over his shoulder. "I did promise you lunch."
Jules just looks at him. And looks a little longer.
Then the light that had grown in her eyes during their short conversation fizzles away.
She shakes her head and turns back to the door.
"Sorry, Perce. Raincheck."
He frowns. She's back to fitting the edge of the trident in between the doors again. As far as he can tell, those things aren't budging anytime soon, and the pocket of air around Juliette is giving less and less resistance against the ocean by the second. Percy can feel that it's significantly weaker than it was when he entered the room. Whatever she has protecting her down here is fading fast, and she isn't making any progress in...whatever it is she thinks she needs to do.
So, Percy steps forward, regardless of her previous warning. "Juliette, what are you doing down here?"
She's busy, pulling hard on the creaking golden weapon with enough strength Percy can see it bending under her hands. From behind teeth gritted in concentration, she replies, "It's a really long story. Seriously, Percy, it's good to see you, but you need to go. You can't hold the cloud back for long."
"What cloud?" He asks in bewilderment. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Julie yelps when the trident finally bends at a 90 degree angle, and she loses her balance, ending up on her butt on the slippery marble tiles. Percy steps even closer in concern, and she holds up a hand again to stop him. "Dude, do not come closer! I know you said you can, like, poison-bend or whatever, but I really wouldn't like to take any chances."
Poison...?
Percy freezes.
The tugging at his gut. It has been stronger this whole time. He sensed something was wrong in the water the moment he entered the broken down barrier around Atlantis.
No wo-...No wonder Rainbow came to get him.
It's all just liquid to him. Whether it's water or...not.
Liquid. Misery. It's all water.
Percy's fingers begin to shake. Riptide is so hard to keep a grip on.
Liquid. Poison. Clouds of green burning his lungs. Poison. Tears, salty in the air, so so easy to control as he redirects them into the goddess'-
"Percy."
Jules' voice is soothing. When he opens his eyes, struggling to slow down his breathing, the face she's giving him reminds him of his mom. It's the way that she looks at him when she finds Percy awake in the dead of night, staring blankly at some sitcom on the TV and trying to tell her he just got caught up in the episodes.
Knowing. Understanding. And sad.
It makes him feel like he's the younger one here.
"You should go home," She advises softly. "I just need to see Poseidon, and then I'll be heading back to New York. I'll see you there."
His dad?
Percy's confusion distracts him from his fear well enough to scowl at her. "You're here to see dad?"
"I mean," She gestures at the bent-to-shit trident still sticking out of the door jam. "Duh?"
"Why do you need to see him?"
Her mouth opens. Then closes. And Percy watches her squirm a little, drawing her knees to her chest where she's still sitting on the hallway floor.
He sighs. Shit. It must be bad if she's thinking that hard about what lie to feed him. Now that he's on the lookout for his friends trying to dupe him, Percy's kind of embarrassed just how long she and Nico managed to keep him in the dark.
Ugh. Nico. If he didn't owe that kid so much, he'd kick his ass into the dirt the next time they crossed paths.
He braces himself to call her out on whatever lie she cooks up.
For once, though, Percy manages to be right. The force around her, the one holding back the ocean's waters, flickers.
The power only disappears for less than a second, but it's enough. In that half of a second, thousands and thousands of pounds of water pry into the cracks in her defense like railspikes. Percy feels the outer layer of wind collapse like tissue paper.
If he weren't such a baller when he's in his home turf, Percy may not have caught her in time. But he does.
In a snap, Percy thrusts out a hand and replaces the wind with a fortified layer of water, encasing Jules safely in a bubble of his own making this time. It happens fast enough that she ends up just looking at him with wide eyes and pale cheeks and squeaking "What just happened?"
Percy snorts, sudden burst of adrenaline wearing off, and drops his hand. He opens his mouth to respond.
Juliette isn't looking at him anymore, though. She's staring off to her right, frowning.
"I heard you, okay? I told you it was fine if you couldn't hold it in place anymore!"
Percy blinks and looks to her side as well. Is she talking to him? "Wait, wha-"
"Hang on, Percy," She cuts him off with a palm to his face and continues arguing with the corner. "But I didn't. See? Ten fingers, five toes. Everything is literally fine. Calm down, you big baby."
"..."
"I told you I'm not leaving until we have what we came here for."
The corner isn't responding. Percy's sword feels fine to sheathe now. He's less concerned because, unfortunately, this is the most Juliette-like thing she's done since he got down here. "Jules?"
Juliette grunts in frustration, tugging on her hair in impatience. He gets her attention, though. She glares at him tiredly and crosses her arms. "What?"
Percy wants to throw something at her. He karate chops his palm with every word. "What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?"
She winces. Guiltily. And she looks down to dig the toe of her faded blue tennis shoe into the floor. "Look, I..."
"...You...?"
"Well..."
"Yes...?"
She covers her eyes with her hands. "I may have...Look, any chance you could get me an audience with your dad?" She asks. "I may have poisoned all of his subjects."
