Piper's POV:
Piper tried to be excited Jason had recovered his past. Tried to happy that he knew where to find leads. But..... yeah, no.
So, she'd remembered all the love dovey stuff and nothing important. He'd remembered a bit about his past, and his first love, just enough to make sense.
"So, where is this place?" Piper said, forcing some enthusiasm into her voice.
Jason buttoned his jacket. "It's where Leila was buried. I remember, I went there a lot... I think I'll find something there."
Annabeth threw Piper a mess of pink. "Here's a wig."
Annabeth had taken off her purple wig, and was now attaching a short platinum blond wig to match her ripped black jeans and black shirt.
Piper pushed her wig on. "What should we wear?"
"Something black?" Hazel suggested. "That's what Nico said."
Hazel herself wore a black dress with a cute little ruffle, and her wig was bright blue space buns.
"Okay." Piper ended up borrowing a white blouse and a black skirt from Jane's closet, mostly as an excuse to check on her.
"We're going to go out, but we'll be back by the afternoon, I promise," Piper said.
Jane opened her eyes for a moment, then closed them again. Piper sighed and left the room.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the graveyard. It was a very dark, depressing place. The sun shone brightly, but the light didn't seem to touch the graveyard. It was a simple one, with dried grass and stone benches and gravestones engraved with names.
Jason stumbled out of the bronze car, and Piper steadied him."Are you okay?"
Jason nodded. "Yeah, just, memories."
He let go of her and Piper immediately felt colder. Wow, what had she become? Where were all these cheesy thoughts coming from?
"So where is the grave?" Annabeth said.
Jason shrugged. "I don't know."
Percy looked around. "Should we just try to find it, then?"
The graveyard was super huge, and if Jason didn't know where it was...
"Should we split up into pairs to go through it?" Piper suggested.
Nobody had objections, so off they went. Piper ended up in a group with Hazel and Frank, because there always had to be a trio in a group of seven.
They went along the west end, checking over every gravestone. Each was way too similar, grey stone, a couple engraved words, dying grass all around it.
"Lelia Bobofit, died age five," Hazel read aloud. "That's so sad!"
"Yeah," Piper said.
"This one is pretty sad, too," Frank said. "Cordelia Rigby, dead from the moment she lived."
"Aw, that's horrible!" Hazel said. She ran over towards Frank, and wrapped an arm around him.
Piper smiled inwardly. When had they gotten so close? It was so cute. Their connection was golden!
A scream filled the air. Piper, Hazel, and Frank ran towards the sound, finding Leo struggling to hold up Jason, who was flailing. A moment later, he slumped, and his eyes opened.
"I remember where it is," Jason said.
"Where?" Percy demanded.
Annabeth arrived a second later. "Yeah, where?"
"In the west side, third row, right next to Cordelia Rigby," Jason croaked out.
"We were just there!" Piper realized.
They ran back to the west side, finally finding the gravestone. Unlike the others, all it said was: here lies an angel, Leila.
"Okay, what do we do now?" Annabeth said.
"I hid something here," Jason said. "Right behind, ah, the flowers."
Leo took out a mini shovel and scooped out the dirt until he hit something with a clang!
"Okay, here it is," Annabeth said, shoving her hand in and pulling out a...globe?
"A globe?" Hazel said.
"A globe," Percy said. "That's what you hid?"
While the others freaked out, Piper was distracted by something else. A flash of movement filled her peripheral vision, a small dark blur on the horizon. She turned to see it closer, but nothing was there. Another flicker of movement caught her eye, but once again, when she turned, nothing was there.
Then she heard it. Dozens of howls filling the air. Several men came forward, all wearing grey bodysuits. At first she thought they were the people who'd ambushed her friends yesterday, but a quick look at her friends destroyed that theory. They looked just as shocked as her, reaching for their weapons.
"Who are you?" Jason said.
A man came forward, his hair matted and greasy, his skin pale and papery, and his copper colored eyes full of smoldering heat. "I'm surprised you don't recognize me."
"Did you attack us yesterday?" Hazel said.
He laughed. "No. I didn't. And put those guns away. They won't do anything."
They all tried anyway, but none of their bullets nor knife strikes worked. They bounced off of their grey bodysuits like it was steel.
"Gold nor steel will work on us," Lycaon said.
"That's werewool, right?" Annabeth said. "So, silver will work on you."
Lycaon looked annoyed, but he said, "Do I see any silver around you?"
Unfortunately, he was right. There was no silver, whatsoever.
Something about him started to look familiar, from the creepy smile to the way he moved, like a wolf stalking, about to attack their prey.
"Lycaon." The name came to her lips, but not the history. Only a few terrible facts.
Lycaon grinned, baring his horribly pointed teeth. "Someone recognizes me.
"You blew up that building, Westover Hall, was it?" Piper said
Both Annabeth and Percy stiffened at the name.
"Westover Hall?" Percy said.
"That's where we found Bianca and Nico," Annabeth said. "And where I was kidnapped."
"So, you were working with Dr. Thorn and the Titans?" Percy said.
Lycaon shrugged. "We were just asked to be the cleanup crew, and we did."
"By blowing up the building?" Jason said.
Lycaon traced a nail down the stone of one of the graves. "Simple and clean."
"Why would you do that?" Leo shouted. Piper knew that fire, ironically since he carried a flamethrower, and also explosions tended to make him... touchy.
"We shared a similar patron. Just ask your friend, Hazel, isn't it?"
Hazel paled. What was he talking about?
"What do you want?" Piper said, deciding to be brave for once.
"We just want the globe." Why did they want the globe? Was it really important?
"We can't give you that," Percy said. They had a lead now. They couldn't give it up.
Lycaon's face darkened with anger. "Perhaps you do not know the true consequences of your actions. Especially you, Piper Mcl-"
Ring! Piper's phone rang, shutting off Lycaon in a satisfying way.
But Lycaon smiled, showing off his fangs, and Piper knew something was wrong. "Why don't you pick that up, dear?"
Piper nervously took her phone out of her pocket, and answered the unknown number. "Hello?"
"Piper?"
"Aphrodite?" Piper turned it to speaker so everyone could hear.
"So, you still won't call me Mom?" Piper groaned.
"No. More importantly, where are you? We can get the police-"
"No time. What's important is that you-" Her voice cut off into a scream.
"Aphrodite? Aphrodite?!" A few rustling seconds later, a new voice came on.
"Piper Mclean." Leo and Hazel both flinched at the voice. Piper figured it was the woman who'd called Leo.
"Who are you and why did you take-"
"So impatient," the voice said. "Turn the phone off of speaker, darling."
Piper nervously did. "Okay."
"Now, let me make something clear. You will give Lycaon the globe and stop investigating."
"And why should I do that?" Piper said.
"Do you want your parents to be returned?"
Piper definitely needed them to be safe. "Okay, fine."
She turned to the rest of her friends and ended the call. "Guys, we have to give them the globe."
"Why?" Percy looked confused.
Annabeth hit his arm. "Her parents, duh. And my mom. And even Hera."
Percy sighed. "Right. Okay, Jason, give it to him, I guess."
Piper had never felt more helpless. Here they were, giving up their only need in exchange for... well, their parents safety was important. Piper didn't regret that. But well, she didn't want to do this. No, definitely not. How had she even got into this?
Leo looked devastated, fiddling with a gear. Percy and Annabeth leaned on each other, both's eyes darting everywhere. Hazel looked pale and withdrawn, her golden brown eyes looking downward. Frank looked confused, but he looked at the men behind him, as if he was sizing them up. Jason was looking right at her. Electric blue eyes, full of such sadness and, well, emotions that Piper couldn't decipher, staring right at her. Then they were downcast, picking up the globe and handing it to Lycaon.
Lycaon took the globe, tucking it under his arm. "Good. You never would have figured it out, anyway."
"Take this!" Leo suddenly yelled, dousing them in flames. Right, the flamethrower! They couldn't be fire resistant, could they?
But while the circle of fire forced them back, it did nothing to their clothes. It did not catch on fire and every second, the flames grew smaller. Leo tried to get more flames, but instead threw the flamethrower to the ground in frustration.
"Dam it! It ran out of fuel!"
Honestly, what were they going to do now? Piper prayed in her mind for a miracle. And then it came. Silver bullets hurtled through the air and struck all of the men, forcing them to run. Lycaon dodged one, but the another one nailed him in the shoulder. Lycaon dropped the globe and Piper ran up, kicking him to the ground and grabbing the globe.
Lycaon snarled. "Next time, darling." With a flourish, he was gone.
A few moments later, her friends all gathered around her.
"Who was that?" Frank said.
"I'm Lupa."
They turned to see a brunette wearing a grey coat and black boots. "Your welcome, by the way."
"Thanks?" Percy said.
Lupa nodded. Something about that seemed familiar, but Piper couldn't dwell on that now.
"By the way, um, do you think you can take her back to civilization?" She brought forward a frail woman. "I found her in the woods, and she said she was l-"
She was cut off by a sharp gasp from Jason. Piper jerked her head towards the woman. She looked familiar, bleached blond hair and pale blue eyes. She actually looked a lot like- no way, she died, right?
Jason leaned forward. "Mom?"
Sorry for being late again, but I promise I'm starting to get back to my updating schedule. Also, I ordered this amazing graphic that I love for Memory that will be up in Memory Extras, so make sure to check that out!