ᴾʰᵒᵇᵒᵖʰᵒᵇⁱᵃ [ᴶᵃˢᵒⁿ ᴳʳᵃᶜᵉ]

ψ.

She could feel the fears that churned at the bottom of her mind's Tartarus churn, threatening to rise up like they had done when Leo, Jason and Piper first arrived at camp. But she pushed them back; she was in control of those fears. They were not in control of her.

Aza opened her eyes when she felt Leo steer Festus, and saw that they were heading towards a white mansion with a huge snowy lawn and a tall brick perimeter fence - it was blazed with light from spotlights, perfect for landing. Leo steered Festus towards it, grinning up at Aza with pride. Aza knelt, squeezing Leo's arm in victory, but that was when everything went wrong. The spotlights on the fence all fixed on them, blinding the two, and Aza heard several small explosions and the sound of metal snapping. Her instincts made her grab Leo, causing the boy to yelp in surprise, and pull him to her chest. She jumped off Festus, maneuvering the two in midair so she would land on the ground closer to wherever Festus landed, cushioning Leo's fall and protecting him from the blast of impact.

Aza felt a searing pain, and then she blacked out.

Aza's head felt hazy when she woke up to voices. "... she took the worst of the fall for me," It was definitely Leo's voice, but it sounded almost like she was underwater, and they were speaking above the surface. "I know you're peeved about what happened in Medea's store, and I was too, but she did it for the best. She's on our side, always, and she's just looking out for us."

"If she didn't," Aza heard Piper defend her, which deeply shocked the girl - last time she checked, Piper wasn't exactly her biggest fan. But maybe her help with Medea had swayed the girl into liking her once more after... whatever it was that had made Piper dislike her. "I couldn't have broken the spell and you and Leo would've killed each other. She cares about us, she really does. And, Aza once told me that she never used her powers on someone else without their consent; she must've had a really, really good reason for using them on you without asking. And she must've thought really hard about it, and I'll bet she's beating herself up over it."

She heard a loud sigh, and a sharp inhale through someone's nose. "Yeah," She thought it was Jason's voice, but again it sounded warped. "Yeah, I know," he sighed again. "But that's an issue for later. Right now, how do we wake her up?"

"I got this covered," Leo said. Aza could hear footsteps approaching her, and then someone's breath on her cheek.

"OI WAKE UP AZA-EVERETT MALIN!" She felt a rush of air, and then a searing pain on her cheek paired with a satisfying smacking noise. Aza felt her head snap to the left and she groaned at the pain, her eyelids fluttering slightly as she tried to force them open, only so she wouldn't get slapped again by Leo.

It took a few moments, but finally she was able to open her eyes. Her vision was swimming slightly; it looked to her like the sky was spinning in a circle above her, and that Jason, Piper and Leo were all slightly warped.

"You're alive," Leo cheered, standing back to his feet with a grin and holding out a hand to haul the girl up. She accepted, stumbling slightly. Leo put a steadying hand on her shoulder, his grin widening slightly. "Nice nap?"

"Fantastic," Aza snarked, rolling her russet eyes and cracking her neck. She looked around; they were still in the yard of the fancy white mansion that they had crash landed on, and all of the lights were pointed on them.

"So," Jason asked. "What now? The main gates are locked, and I'm guessing I can't fly us out of here without getting shot down."

Leo looked up at the walkway that led to the front doors of the large mansion and said, "Since we can't go out, we'll have to go in."

It proved to be just as difficult getting into the mansion as it most likely would have been to leave the yard in the first place; there was a trap-door on the sidewalk, lasers on the steps, and even a nerve gas dispenser on the porch railing - not to mention, of course, the exploding doorbell. Luckily for them, Leo was able to identify the traps before any of them could accidentally trigger them, and could deactivate them quickly.