ANTI-HERO, j.grace

TWELVE

As if anything had been going right in the first place (it hadn't), Klein Maddox now found herself tumbling freely through the sky just like the Apollo Cabin's chariot that Annabeth Chase had broken. She was expecting the same fate - the cold wind ripping at her body as the ground below her grew closer and the clouds passed her by.

Death by dragon crash - Kieran was going to have a field day.

"What the fuck!" Her voice rang through the air, wind stinging at her eyes and forcing a grimace onto her face as she grabbed for the something that didn't exist to stop the fall.

Leo went whizzing past her, a screech tearing from him that was so high pitched the Maddox girl would have thought him part tea kettle, "Not coooll!"

The world tore past her in a blurry spiral, dizzying her faster than she could have expected and forcing her attention away from the impending doom of colliding with the ground below.

"Klein, level out!" Jason shouted, "Extend your arms and legs!"

The only thing that Klein extended was a colorful array of curses.

Suddenly a body slammed against her from behind, a pair of arms quickly grabbing ahold of her flailing body, "Klein, it's me! Klein, I got you!" Quickly followed by, "Stop - Klein, ow!" When her flailing became a little to hard and she elbowed the boy grabbing her in the chest.

It was likely that she had also elbowed Piper, but Klein couldn't be sure as by the time they had all collided in a hurried hast to slow the fall Jason had both Piper and Leo held with him as well. Klein pulled herself flush against the boy the instant she registered that it was truly him trying to propel them upwards, squeezing her eyes shut in protection from the freezing winds as they ripped past them.

Leo was shouting, "You gotta save Festus!" Fighting against Jason's grip as their fall wobbled into a nearly zigzag like pattern, falling through the clouds like rubber bouncing balls.

They were still high enough in the air to be flattened like road kill upon impact when Jason groaned, "I can't-"

And they plummeted once more.

Klein Maddox was the very last person that Jason Grace lost his hold of, a gasp tearing from her as the wind reigned it's control once more. For a moment all she could think about what it would feel like upon collision, if it would be instantaneous.

She certainly hoped it would have hurt less.

The second she hit the metal roof she was sure it was over, yet somehow she fell further more. And the second collision, slamming against the pipes and parts that gathered above the catwalk, it hurt even more.

For a few moments all she knew was pain, all she saw was a burning red, all she heard was a piercing ringing in her ears. She couldn't decipher where exactly the pain was coming from at that moment, her right leg that was not covered by the bronzed prosthetic, her left shoulder that had surely shattered upon impact, or her head from the pure force of the impact.

The ringing cleared enough that Klein was able to hear the groaning below her in addition to Leo's protests because "I'm not a sofa!".

There wasn't much to see around her, the stars visible through the hole broken through the ceiling providing little illumination, and the emergency light that was flickering above only providing so much.