"You are being respectful now, are you?" Neptune scoffs. "As if you did not invade my kingdom without permission? As if my wife and son are not currently hard at work clearing the toxins from Atlantis' waters as we speak?" He curls a lip, revealing rows of pointed shark teeth behind his trimmed black beard. "Give me one reason not to obliterate what remains of your cowardly soul right where you swim, Lightning-spawn."
Is that, like, a slur? It sounds like one. Not a good one, though.
Wait, what did he say? Can he do that?
"I apologize for how we entered, your majesty," Jason sounds way more sorry than Juliette feels. It's probably a good thing it's his turn to talk right now. "After the ordeal we've been through, Juliette's powers are unstable. Aggression was never our intention when we made it to your borders."
Did she just get blamed? Well, it was her magic. Magic? Is what they have technically magic?
If this was anyone's fault, Julie's gonna blame the giant grab/octopus of death that had her at her wits end when Triton tried going all Airport Security on her.
"Is Jason...?"
Julie glances over at Percy. Understanding is dawning across his face. Understanding, dread, and sadness. She squeezes his fingers and offers him a small smile.
"Thank you for getting us here," She whispers, emphasizing the plurality of us.
Percy gulps, seeming very unsure, and just ends up squeezing her fingers back before returning his attention to the half of the conversation he can actually hear.
Neptune is shaking his head again, smirking bitterly. "You are quite the little politician, aren't you?" He taps his fingers on his trident. "Jupiter must be very proud."
Jason falters. Julie itches with the sudden scrape of hesitance and...shame from his direction. It makes Neptune's eyes light up in intrigue. The god leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees and peer down at the group of much shorter petitioners.
"Oh, I see," He chuckles, darkly amused. "No wonder that storm did nothing to save you."
Oh.
What are Juliette's chances if she tries to scrape out the eyes of the Sea God with her broken, unpainted fingernails?
She watches Jason's head drop for a moment. His eyes are shut, his nostrils flared as he takes in a deep breath. Then he looks back up at Neptune and nods.
"My father is not...my biggest fan," Jason confirms. "Not since the Acropolis. But that doesn't matter."
"Doesn't it?" Neptune questions. "My brother is many things, but forgiving is not one of them. I actually find it to be one of his more redeeming qualities. It is what pulled Hades and I from the depths of Kronos' stomach, after all."
Ew.
"If you are not in favor with him," reasons Neptune. "Then you are wasting my time and yours. Even if you were to convince me that providing my piece of the shuttle is worthwhile, you would have to retrieve not only Hades' section - which is another impossibility in itself - but Zeus' as well. And we both know that the King of the Gods does not enjoy being reasoned with."
Julie has never wanted to interject so badly in her life. If it weren't for the deathgrip that Percy is returning on her swiftly whitening fingers, she'd be bursting out some stupid response and getting them kicked right out. This is too important for her to screw up. She keeps her mouth shut, her teeth dug into her lip, sort of uncomfortable by how much pressure she can put behind them and still not split her Styx-coated skin.
Jason is silent for a moment, pondering. And then he nods.
"I know," He says quietly. "But Hades is the reason we're here in the first place. We have his blessing. And, I suppose, I feel that if I can convince you that I'm worth saving..." He glances down at the half burnt away tattoo on his forearm. "Maybe...Maybe he'll see some worth in me. Too."
Neptune's expression is not quite so intense once Jason's explanation is finished. He still looks unhappy, irritable, but less impatient and angry. The god sighs, scratches his beard, and stares off past them all. His free hand drops from the arm of his chair to tap against the arm of Triton's, his seagreens faraway.
Juliette feels Percy shift beside her. He's clearly trying hard to keep up, trying to guess what exactly Jason said to make his dad think so hard. He must not do super well, because he huffs in impatience and squeezes Julie's hand.
"Are you going to help him?" He asks Neptune with a frown. "I'd...appreciate it if you did."
The god glances at his son. In that split second that their gazes connect, the man softens considerably. By the time he looks away from Percy's earnest, stubborn face, he appears a lot more like the guy who stole the biggest slice of cake at his son's fifteenth birthday party. He leans his trident against Amphitrite's throne and stands up, shrinking down to human size. Poseidon walks to the edge of the platform and stares into the dark abyss of the deep ocean around them.
"I have kept it so long in order to use it at the right time," He says softly. Somberly. The god chuckles without amusement and bows his head. "I have carried it close by, never far out of reach...for the past eighteen years. Just in case." He looks over his shoulder at Percy. For a long moment, he lingers, staring at the features copy and pasted from himself onto his son. "It will take more than the right choice of words to earn such a gift from me, boy."
There's a soft green light that manifests in the center of the room, equal distance from their group and Poseidon. When it fades enough that Julie doesn't have to squint against it...there it is.
No bigger than the fist sized piece she got from Hades, a dark blue, green scaled chunk of wood, gold, and bronze floats before them. It's the opposite end of the shuttle than Hades had, and Julie is still very confused how this weird-ass thing somehow comes together to be an arts and crafts tool. It shimmers beneath the orange light of the corals, and Julie can't stop herself from stepping towards it eagerly.
The moment she does, it disappears. Poseidon turns back to them fully, face stoic.
"Not yet," He tuts at her. "You haven't yet convinced me."
Poseidon looks at Percy then, only at Percy, and frowns in disapproval.
"Don't you have school tomorrow?"
"I want to help you."
"I know you do."
"This isn't right."
"I can handle it, Percy."
"I know, but-" He groans in frustration, raking a hand through his hair. "I just found you after all this time apart. And now I'm ditching you."
Juliette sets down her veggie taco. She shakes her head at him, exasperated but too happy to be with him to do anything but smile. She kicks Percy under the table and grins. "Should have come by on a weekend, then."
He fake laughs at her and takes his anger out on his plate of tacos (not fish tacos, even if that's the main dish of this outdoor restaurant Jason recommended. Fish are friends). Julie watches him devour one in two enormous bites with an amused grimace.
She looks up at the spring sky and sighs. Happily.
The last time she felt the sun on her skin like this, she was fighting sphynxes on a football field for Commodus' entertainment. She was locked away for so long that she nearly forgot what eating tacos in the sun can feel like.
Oh gods, why is she about to start crying again? She has got to be the whiniest Curse of Achilles holder there ever was.
"You said the emperors are the ones who did all this, right?" Percy asks around a mouthful of corn tortilla. "And that's who attacked camp with the giant naked Apollo statue?"
"I am really glad I wasn't there for that," She gags. Then again, (real) Apollo's objectively pretty hot. Seeing that probably would have been way better than failing at seducing Lit into un-kidnapping her in the back of a moving van.
Oops! That thought isn't supposed to be out of the repression room! Let's get that back where it goes.
Dumping hot sauce all over her food seems like a good way to disguise the stinging in her eyes. She uncaps the bottle and holds it practically vertically over her plate.
"I'll need to amp up training at camp, then," Percy sighs, nodding and wiping his face on his wrist. "It'll have to be next week, though. I've got prom with Annabeth tomorrow."
Juliette pauses halfway through screwing back on the cap.
She looks across the picnic table at Percy, who's glaring irritably across the crashing waves of the Pacific as if he can spot Caligula's fleet of cruise ships from here. She knew it must be spring by now, because she got kidnapped in winter, and it's not hot enough yet to be summer. She guesses she just hasn't thought about what spring means for people living their regular lives back home, though.
She sets the hot sauce down and picks at the label with her broken, dirty fingernails. "Oh. It's prom season?"
Percy nods. "Yeah. Annie and I are supposed to meet up at the apartment tomorrow night to go to dinner and stuff. I wonder if I can just send a dolphin to let Chiron know about everything, and then I'll just go help out the day after."
Julie nods thoughtlessly, a pit in her stomach. The label of the hot sauce is probably not legible now that's she's gotten her hands on it. The glue from it is bunching up under her nails all sticky-like.
He pauses his plans and looks over at her, and that's when Juliette can't control the stinging anymore. She shoots up from her seat and spins on her heel in the sand.
"I gotta pee. Be right back."
Without looking at him, she retreats to the nearest porta-potty and slams the door closed behind her.
This is by far the stinkiest place Juliette has ever cried. There's no lid on the toilet for her to sit on, so she slumps forward against the door to sob into her hands. This is so gross. Her forehead is probably touching where a million unwashed hands pushed open the door, but she's too inconsolable to do anything about it. Julie chokes on her tears, trying her best to sob quietly into the crook of her arm, and tantrums.
This year has sucked so bad. She doesn't think she can come up with a single good memory for the last four or five months. Julie thinks she would do anything just to rewind and make better decisions the second time around.
It isn't long before there's a knock at the door and Julie has to hold her breath so she can call out a sweet-sounding, not at all tearful "Occupied!"
Percy sighs on the other side of the door and knocks again. "Jules, come out."
"I said occupied!"
"Don't make me blow that toilet up."
Okay, bluffer. Julie sniffles stubbornly. Then she curses Jason in three different languages when the lock on the door glows blue and the porta potty swings back open.
Fucking traitor.
Percy snatches her out of the stall before she can yank it back closed and cackles. "Nice one, man," He compliments the air.
Jason's presence ruffles both of their hair, but he doesn't manifest, giving them privacy as Percy keeps Julie squeezed too tightly against his chest to escape.
She punches him softly in the stomach in protest. He just tucks her under his chin and chuckles.
"Is there a reason you cry in porta-potties now?" He prompts.
Juliette scowls. "They're cozy."
"Mhm."
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Mm. Tough," Percy snorts, starfish walking them backwards to their table with her still restrained in a hug. "Because I need college essay topics."
Julie rolls her eyes. "What, like you don't have a list?"
"Not a good one."
"Forbidden child?"
"I mean, sure, but that's lame."
"Death prophecy? Fighting Mother Earth?"
"Would you just tell me what's wrong?"
He tugs her down to sit on the bench beside him and swaps his bearhug-style restraint for an arm around her shoulders. Julie sighs and reaches up to push her bangs out of her face.
What a loaded question. Where does she even start?
"I just," She sighs again, tugging on a tangle up by her right ear. "Wanted to go to prom, I guess."
Percy doesn't respond. She continues trying to detangle her hair while she waits for him to. It gets to be a bit awkwardly silent, and Juliette ends up rolling her eyes and turning to suggest he brush up on his 'Responding to Questions He Asked' skills.
But Percy's focus isn't on her, and he doesn't look like he's thinking hard about a response. His eyes are on her upper arm, the one that's raised up to fix her tangled hair, and his skin has turned Nico di Angelo pale.
Julie follows his gaze. Her sleeve is too big. It fell down to her shoulder when she raised her arm. Now gleaming in the sun is a simple gold band with the etching of a fasces. Faded, spiderweb burn scars form a larger band all around it, and that seems to be where Percy is looking.
Juliette has no explanation for him. He knows exactly what he's looking at. Rather than trying to frantically tuck her arm back into her sleeve, she just sighs and offers it to him instead. Percy glances at her. Then, hesitantly, his shaking hands cradle her bicep so that he can look closer at the shackle melted there.
"Nero did one," She explains tiredly, picking at her plate from earlier, not very hungry after smelling that porta potty. "Commodus did the other. Caligula's the one who really had a blast with it, though. And don't even get me started on Medea."
Percy stares down at the Tiberii donum. "They're still alive?" He asks quietly.
Julie shrugs. "Last I checked. Not Medea, though. Jason killed her."
"Good."
The quick approval at Jason's merciless slaughter of an ancient sorcerous makes Julie raise her eyebrows at her brother. He has a satisfied little smirk on from that news. It makes her wants to scoot away nervously.
He releases her arm gently and turns back to his food. Stuffing the last bite into his face, Percy wipes his hands on his jeans and stands up off the bench to stretch. Juliette watches him, anxiety brewing as she catches him taking in the swiftly setting sun. He'll need to get going soon. He has prom tomorrow.
"Will you be home soon?" He asks.
Julie chews on her lip, drumming her fingers on the table. "I hope so. If I can pull this off and get Poseidon's piece of the shuttle, then I'll need to head to Olympus next. Which means back to New York."
Percy nods. "Okay. You be careful. That Curse may feel good while you're fighting, but it'll drain you faster than you expect. Make sure you have a safe place to rest in between battles. You're gonna need some naps."
"Sir, yes, sir," She mocks, grinning.
He rolls his eyes at her and ruffles her hair, putting back all the tangles she just diligently worked out. "And take care of whatever spot you picked as your weakpoint. Don't tell anyone. You hear me?"
She smirks at him and crosses her arms. "Didn't you tell Annabeth?"
"That's different."
"Why?!"
"She's Annabeth."
"Alright, touché."
Percy laughs and drops a kiss on her head before beginning to walk backwards towards the ocean. "I need to get back, but promise me you'll get back home, okay? No offense to Jason, but don't you dare die for him, you hear me?"
"I hear you," She confirms, shaking her head. She hears him, sure, but he's not the boss of her. "Tell Sally and Paul I miss them, okay? And Nico."
Percy scowls at the mention of Nico, but he nods anyway. "Love you, Jules."
"Love you too, Perce."
Julie watches, chest tight, as he flips her off with a grin and turns to dive into the waves. It isn't more than a few seconds before his aura is miles away from shore and then...gone. The sun dips past the horizon, and Juliette looks down at the empty paper plate beside her uneaten veggie tacos. At least she didn't have to pay for them.
Blue light glimmers softly beside her, and Jason manifests where Percy was sitting. He looks like a kicked puppy, and it makes her snort around the lump regrowing in her throat.
"I may not have made it home by May," Jason mumbles.
Juliette chuckles and picks up her fork, plucking corn out of her taco and flinging it through his ghostly shape. "Mhm."
"In my defense," He says weakly. "I would much rather be going to prom than what we're doing right now." Jason blows out a raspberry in annoyance and glares at the sky. It's such a her action that Julie can't help but laugh at his distress.
He fakes a look of betrayal and glares at her playfully. Julie gets her giggles under control and looks out over the ocean, trying to figure out which way she'll be flapping her wings towards soon.
"There's always next year," She points out. Julie spots the right landmarks and nods to herself before turning back to Jason.
He's smiling at her softly. It starts a swell of hope in Julie's chest. She flings another piece of corn at him in punishment for making her feel so suddenly flustered. Jason grins as it soars through his face and nods.
"Next year," He confirms. "That sounds good to me."
Percy has school in the morning. Yes. But he still has time for one last little pit-stop.
He swims circles around the repaired barrier of Atlantis for less than ten minutes before he hears the sound he was listening for. A clicking. A clacking. And then a screech.
Percy turns with a grin as a shadow the size of several city blocks emerges from behind a rock formation and begins barreling his way. The creature is crab shaped, shelled, but is swimming towards him at the speed of a torpedo while its eight puckered tentacles jog through the water. It's hissing at him loudly enough that the tall trees of kelp around him are rattling together. If he were anyone but a son of Poseidon, this would definitely be terrifying.
But, luckily (for once), he is a son of Poseidon. So, he just reaches out a palm with a smile.
At the sight of the gesture, the creature thrusts out its tentacles into the sandy seafloor, screeching to a halt so dramatically that the water around them fills with plumes of sediment. Once it clears, though, what Percy would consider to be part of the forehead of the massive creature is pressed gently against his palm, humming with affection.
Grinning, Percy scratches Cetus' shell like he's an oversized chihuahua in armor, and the seamonster that his namesake once famously slayed flips over to ask for belly rubs.
"Hey there, big fella!" Percy coos swimming over to Cetus' belly to oblige. "I have a job for you. You interested?"
