╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
[12|| chapter twelve]
she-cago!
╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝
UNFORTUNATELY, THE BAD NEWS DIDN'T STOP WITH JASON'S DREAM.
Leo continued on to tell them about how he'd seen their enemy, the sleeping lady Luna knew as Gaea, in the sludge of gunk in the Porta-Potties shortly after she left him alone outside. While this would've proved to make the girl feel worse, Leo seemed to sense her distress and patted her hands multiple times to ensure she knew it wasn't her fault.
"She's trying to divide us." Piper stated uneasily.
"What's wrong?" Jason asked her.
"I just... why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"
At first Luna felt terrible guilt weigh down her shoulders, but then she whipped around to face the girl, surprised that she knew the name of one of Gaea's giant children. The girl instantly began to stutter over her words.
"Enceladus?" Jason inquired.
"How do you—"
"I mean," Her voice quavered under Luna's stare. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."
Luna turned back to face Leo again, unsure if she should question Piper's words as much as she wanted to.
Either Piper and her father went really in depth with their research for his movie, or she somehow knew something the others didn't, because Luna knew for a fact that the American education system didn't take Greek history or 'mythology' seriously enough to teach it at schools. Especially not something as unbelievable as the story of the giants. Thats why most of the demigods came to camp knowing nothing.
Still, Luna trusted Piper enough to not get entirely suspicious.
Leo scratched his head. "Well, I don't know about Enchiladas—"
Luna's lips twitched.
"Enceladus." Piper corrected, which made Luna glance around warily, all traces of her smile dropping.
She hated that they threw all of the names around so carelessly. She'd been raised with the knowledge that names had more power than mortals gave them credit for, and just saying the name Enceladus once made her uncomfortable, but the others were throwing it around like it was nothing. She knew she should say something, but she didn't know how. New demigods hardly believed the things they were told.
"Whatever." Leo shrugged. "But Old Potty Face did mention another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?"
Luna moved to stop her, but Piper said it before she could warn her not to.
"Porphyrion." Piper nodded. "He was the giant king, I think."
Since Luna offered no explanation or confirmation, seeing as she was too busy looking around nervously, Jason spoke instead. "I'm going to take a wild guess. In the old stories, Pophyrion kidnapped Hera. That was the first shot between a war between the giants and the gods."
"Yes." Luna finally confirmed for him grimly. She shot a look at both of them over her shoulder. "And it's not a story. It happened. And if we don't get Hera soon, it's going to happen again. Only this time, all of us are going to be fighting in it."
They all stared at her in surprise and even Leo seemed to stiffen in her arms. She slowly drew back so that the cold wind encased her frame again, afraid she'd only added to the pressure they felt. But it was the cold hard truth of what they were doing.
"They were almost impossible to kill, weren't they?" Piper finally broke the tense silence. Luna nodded back wordlessly in response.
Jason finally averted his gaze from the side of Luna's face. "Heroes and gods have to work together. That's what Hera told me."
"Kind of hard to do," Leo grumbled. "If the gods won't even talk to us."
Everyone turned quiet again and Luna wrapped her arms around herself. This quest seemed almost impossible. They were short on time, chasing wind spirits to appease a god she didn't even think would hold their end of the bargain— because they almost always never did— and they still didn't know where Hera was or how they were even going to free her from this cage when they did find her.
Judging by what Hera showed Jason in his dream, if the power of a god couldn't reduce that jail to cinders, then what luck did four demigods who didn't even completely know the full extent of their powers have?
Jason must've noticed that she was shaking, because he placed a firm palm on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"
She didn't answer his question. Instead she turned and lowered her voice so that only they could hear what she asked. "Back in Quebec, you said your last name was Grace. What... when did you remember?"
Jason's mouth twisted as he contemplated telling her, and it was then that she noticed the scar on his lip, roughly the size of a staple. She wondered how he'd gotten it. Did he receive it during combat with another demigod with a purple shirt? Fighting monsters he couldn't remember? Or something mundane and ridiculous?
"I remembered this morning. Or technically, yesterday morning." He leaned forward so she could hear him more clearly. "In my cabin, when I saw this picture of Annabeth, a blond guy—"
"Luke." Luna's voice was bitter, but her eyes were slightly hurt. "The picture you have in your pocket of Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia."
Jason nodded gently, cupping his jeans as if he didn't need to see it to know what it looked like. "I remembered when I saw it. I think Hera left me this one thing on purpose for some reason. Thalia... she's my sister. My last name is Grace."
Jason must've seen the mix of emotions clear on her face, because he quickly shook his head. "I don't know what any of it means, either. I just know, deep down, that we're related. I just wish... I wish Hera would've left me more."
Luna's face suddenly looked like she hadn't slept in over a year. She chuckled humorlessly. "There wouldn't be much of a plot if she would have. The gods loving doing cryptic stuff like this. Like they enjoy watching us as some form of reality TV. I'm sorry that I can't offer you more information about Thalia. I only met her a few years ago and then..."
Jason eyed her curiously as she trailed off.
And then she joined the hunters and was quite possibly told to pretend Luna didn't exist because she was the result of a broken vow. A mistake.
"Hey," Jason's hand fell from her shoulder to her bicep and he squeezed it gently "It's okay. I figure if I get another knock to the head everything should come back, right?"
Luna smiled at him, but it didn't reach her eyes. "You've got a thick skull. If a punch from one of those beasts back there can't do it— I don't know if anything really can."
Jason laughed as he pulled back. When that faded it was silent again, everyone getting lost in their own thoughts.
Luna felt a chill run down her spine and slowly inched towards Leo.
"Go ahead, moon star. You know I don't mind." He said back to her without looking.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, but definitely not enough not to do it, Luna wrapped her arms around Leo's waist again. Warmth instantly flooded from the contact, despite the layers of clothing between them. She wondered if he ever got tired of being so warm.
Soon enough, light began to make it's way into the sky again and Festus dipped from below the clouds, revealing a dark grey city full of tall skyscrapers and noise that was odd to Luna since the sun was barely coming up. Chiron used to tell her that no matter the weather, hour, or day, cities were never as quiet as the valleys of rolling hills near Camp. Cities never sleep, apparently.
"Chicago." Jason said as he looked around.
"One problem down," Leo sighed. "we got here alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?"
No need to look, flaming hot cheeto! Archie shot up and swiveled around Festus' wings. One of them almost ran into me down below. Look at that stormy little turd go.
Luna followed his line of vision and saw a smoky gray figure whizzing throughout the city, weaving and changing forms into various figures. Human, horse, cloud. For a fraction of a moment it looked like Archie, then it changed in a flurry and shot off.
Jason seemed to have spotted it too. "How about we follow that one and see where it goes."
"Where is it?" Leo looked down frantically and followed Luna's finger when she pointed. "Festus, follow that storm spirit!"
Festus did as he said, but it was hard for the huge bronze dragon to move as fluidly now that they were in the city where the buildings were packed tighter than sardines in a can. His wings didn't help either, too wide to fit through a majority of the alleyways and streets the anemoi thuellai shot down.
"Speed up!" Jason urged. Luna could practically feel his desperation. This was their only lead and if they lost sight of it they'd have nothing else to go off of.
"Bro, if I get any closer he'll spot us." Leo said. "Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."
"Pull up," Luna warned Leo at the same time that Piper shouted for them to slow down.
The storm spirit had dove into a maze of downtown streets, but Festus' wingspan was too wide for the clustered buildings and one of his bronze wings sliced through a cement gargoyle like it was made of clay. Leo pulled up before they could do more damage, but Luna hissed when the stone figure toppled down and smashed right on the top of an expensive looking car.
"Hope nobody was in there." She muttered.
"Get above the buildings," Jason leaned forward to tell Leo. "We'll track him from there."
"You wanna drive this thing?" Leo grumbled, but did as the blond suggested anyway.
They caught sight of the storm spirit again and Luna made a face as she watched the monster dip, zoom, and crash with no purpose. "Creatures of absolute chaos, with no purpose but causing havoc. No wonder Aeolus is mad."
"Oh great," Piper groaned, pointing below. "There's two."
She was right. Another joined the first, and together it was like they had cohesive thoughts, swirling, swooping, and crashing against anything they deemed worthy of their destruction together. Radio towers bent, newspaper stands went up in flurries of paper as they dashed passed, and hats were lost off of innocent bystanders heads, though there weren't enough mortals around to question it.
Wow. Look at these guys, they're almost as fast as me. Archie laughed before his voice turned serious. Do I kill them?
"No, don't kill them." Luna shot her pegasus a glare. "We need them."
"These guys do not need any more caffeine." Leo commented as he watched the storm spirits buzz around.
Luna was just glad that they weren't expected to fight these things. They moved so fast it almost seemed impossible to get a good shot on them. And even if she did, she remembered something about them not being completely solid most of the time.
"I guess Chicago's a good place to hangout." Piper said. "Nobody's gonna question a couple more evil winds."
"More than a couple." Jason pointed out. "Look."
Festus had circled over a lakeside park, where a bunch of other storm spirits were converging— at least a dozen of them, Luna had to guess— looping around some huge installation Luna didn't recognize. She wasn't very familiar with cities and what was in them unless they were Greek, historic, or no longer standing. Chiron always told her that in comparison to their history, mortal attractions lacked excitement.
"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked with a huff. "I wanna throw something at him."
Luna chuckled behind him, but every second that passed as she stared at the place where the storm spirits were meeting, the more the worry in her stomach began to build.
It seemed to be a fountain with two very tall monoliths rising from either side of the granite pool, electric screens showing an image of a face so that it looked like it was spitting water. Then it changed and her dread increased tenfold.
"What—" Luna cut herself off, staring in horror at the sleeping face of a woman that looked strangely like she was made of soil.
Gaea.
"Leo," Jason said warily.
"I see her." Leo was stiff in Luna's arms. "I don't like her, but I see her."
Then the screens blacked out. Luna felt a little relief, but only because Gaea's face was no longer there. Reasonably, the thought of having evil mother nature watching, but not actually watching them, made her sick to her stomach. Part of her was glad that she had yet to encounter the woman, but she also felt bad that Leo was having to deal with it on his own. Especially having to see her after he admitted the first time he ever encountered her was the night his mother died.
The anemoi thuellai swirled until they were one giant mass of evil gray smoke, spun around the fountain, and then when they neared the center they popped off a the cover to a drain and disappeared to who knows where.
"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"
I guess they took the title of turd very seriously. I don't know a lot about sewers, but I have a good idea what goes down them. Archie shook his head, circling them from higher above.
"I don't think we should." Leo turned to them. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"
"It feels like a trap." Luna agreed, turning to lock eyes with Jason. "Leo has a point."
But Jason's blue eyes were hard with determination. "Put us down in that park. We'll check it out on foot."
"Jason..." Luna trailed off as Leo surprisingly obeyed without question. "This is going to be dangerous. Quite possible even more dangerous than the cyclops lair."
"We only have two days until the solstice." Jason reminded her. "Besides, if anything goes wrong this time you don't have to worry about me. I won't fall for another trick."
Luna was pretty sure he was trying to make her feel better, but it only proved to make her feel worse. But the more she looked at how determined he seemed, the more it rubbed off on her. She remembered Dionysius' words again and moved her palm to her heart.
Bum, bum-bum.
She finally nodded. "Okay. I'm believing you, Jason Grace."
He only smiled at her in return.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
SHORTLY AFTER FORCING AN ANGRY ARCHIE TO TAKE TO THE SKIES WITH FESTUS AS THEY WENT UNDERGROUND, JASON DECIDED A REST WAS IN ORDER.
Luna wanted to argue, but her main reasoning was because the sewer they were in was about zero degrees and reminded her of Khione and their time at the Boreas mansion. But that wasn't the only thing.
It was also because of the fact that they'd actually seen Gaea in those screens and no matter how far they delved in the sewers no anemoi attacked. This meant that either their mistress knew they were coming and wanted to humor them by letting them live long enough to know who she was, or they were unaware of their presence, which she highly doubted.
Still, with Piper's ankle and Jason's injuries, not to mention the fact that Leo was quite possibly exhausted out of his mind from saving all of them back in Detroit, Luna knew it would only end badly if they continued on without at least a small break.
So she took to sticking by Leo's side as he gathered materials to create a small fire, placing her back firmly against the wall as her backpack laid in between her thighs. Her bow was set off to her right side, just in case she needed to grab it in a hurry.
"So, what do you plan on making, Chef Leo?" Luna asked mindlessly as she dug around in her backpack.
"The only thing I know how to make that's quick and delicious." Leo grinned at her, eyes sparkling. He sounded like an advertisement. "Tacos. Tofu instead of beef since Piper's vegetarian."
Luna glanced up to see him pulling a small pan from his belt. Her eyebrows furrowed. Did most mechanics need pans in their work spaces? After a moment she shrugged. She wasn't going to question it, especially because she was hungrier than she wanted to admit. "I've never had tacos."
Leo went so still, for a moment Luna was afraid that something else was happening. Like a-goddess-trying-to-speak-through-her-friend-again kind of happen. Then he looked at her in absolute horror.
"You've never had tacos?" He all but yelled, his voice echoing around them loudly. Piper and Jason stopped their conversation to stare. The blond gave him a stern look. "Sorry." He dropped his voice to what he probably thought was a whisper. "You've never had tacos?"
Luna tried to hold back her smile. "No. The food served at camp mostly stays the same. Meat, fruit, veggies. Occasionally enchiladas because of Grover and the other satyrs."
Leo didn't even question who Grover was. "Well, you're about to have your mind blown, moon star. It might seem like a complete stereotype because I'm Latino, but I am a master at both making and devouring tacos. You're going to have to stop yourself from falling in love with me because of how good they're gonna be."
Luna laughed loudly at that, her smile lighting up the tunnel. She finally found what she was searching for in her backpack and pulled it out, untangling the wires as she replied, "If they end up terrible you're going to eat your words, hot cheeto."
Leo took a moment to look up from his pepper cutting to gape at her. "Hot Cheeto? I'm insulted. It's because I told you I'm Latino, isn't it? That is so racist."
"No," Luna denied so fast Leo's eyes crinkled with laughter. "Archie called you that first. He has a lot of names for you."
Leo narrowed his eyes playfully. "I'm hoping none of them are worse than that."
"No. Sometimes he's a pain in the butt, but he's not an asshole. He knows what's appropriate and what's not." She paused. "Most of the time."
Luna's eyes flickered to Leo's hands momentarily, her stomach knotting at the sight of the fire that shot from his palm. It wasn't so close that it was too hot, but it was close enough that the smoke wafted in her direction, and she made a face at the smell, her entire body alive with the memories of what happened hours ago. Though the pain had gone away, the images were branded in her mind.
She was sure whenever she slept she'd have nightmares about it too. Something she hadn't been prepared for when she thought about going on quests: the trauma.
Leo's eyes met hers and his brow furrowed. "Hey, what's— holy shit, is that a Walkman?"
Luna blinked and looked down at the chunky pink device in her hands. "Oh, yeah. Yeah. Annabeth gave it to me for my fourteenth birthday. It's dangerous to have it out here, but music... well, it helps calm me. She knew that. Now every year she gives me a new mix-tape of everything she'll think I like. I think she can read minds, because I always do."
Leo let out a breath. "Damn, you guys must be really close. No one has ever made me a mix-tape."
Luna nodded in agreement and pressed down the open button, revealing the cassette with her most used tape titled questionable songs with good beats. She grinned and slid the pink headphones on her neck. Then she clicked the Walkman closed and pressed play with a cheeky grin in Leo's direction.
Instantly, Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado blared from the headphones, the beat causing vibrations against her neck. Leo began to bop his head to the beat, then as the lyrics started he looked at the girl in surprise.
"Moon star! This song is bad! Too naughty!" Leo faked a gasp, hand on his chest.
Their eyes met, grins growing, and when the chorus started, they both started to dance ridiculously, like their minds were on the same wave length. This time Jason and Piper laughed along with them, but didn't join them in their idiotic dancing. Luna was glad that they had something to distract them from the looming future, even if they were technically wasting time.
It didn't take Leo long to finish cooking, the music somehow making him move faster. When the song ended, as the title of the mix-tape promised, another song with questionable lyrics and a good beat played. Only when the food was done and they gathered around to eat did Luna turn it off, but the energy lingered a while after.
"Chef Leo's Taco Garage is fixing you up!" Leo grinned, handing each of them their own styrofoam plate stacked with tacos that made Luna's mouth water. "And by the way, it's tofu, not beef, beauty queen, so don't freak. Just dig in!"
As Jason and Piper began to eat, Leo's eyes drifted to Luna, who was taking notes from the other two on how to hold the taco without everything falling out of the ends. She quickly noticed his eyes.
"Stop," She bumped her knee with his. "You're making me nervous."
"I just wanna see your reaction!" Leo grinned, but moved to take a bite of his own taco. He spoke again around his food. "Go on, I didn't spit in it."
Luna rolled her eyes and moved her head to hide her pink cheeks with her hair as she finally took a bite. She tried to hold back any reaction, but she felt her eyes light up as flavor burst along her tongue. She nodded wordlessly, trying to finish her food before speaking.
Leo leaned forward in anticipation as Jason and Piper shared a look.
"Chef Leo of Leo's Taco Garage," Luna announced in a serious voice after swallowing her food. "I rate your tacos a solid five."
Leo's face fell into disappointment.
"Out of five." Luna finished with a grin. "It's really good and considering the materials and situation, I think it's almost impossible how tasty they are. I give you the title of Best Chef, Leo Valdez."
"Yeah!" Leo fist pumped and almost knocked over his own plate. "Oh, shit!"
Piper rolled her eyes at the two and continued to eat in silence and Jason finally spoke up. "Wait a second... what was so special about Luna's reaction and not ours?"
"First time having tacos." Luna shrugged while he gave about the same reaction as Leo had.
"I don't even have my memory, but I know I've eaten tacos before." He shook his head at the girl. "They were holding out on you back at camp, star girl."
She only rolled her eyes at all of them when they laughed.
They ate in silence for a long while and eventually Piper finished first and instantly took Jason's suggestion to sleep, settling her head on his lap without saying anything in return.
Luna wondered if they'd done something to upset her, because she definitely looked a lot sadder than before, but she figured it must've been the whole hanging upside down for a long time thing that was bothering her. At least Luna hoped it was.
When she completely cleaned off her plate and downed all of the lemonade she threw herself back against the ground and held her stomach with a groan. "So full."
"Good, huh?" Leo grinned down at her.
"Too good. Suspiciously good. I feel bad Archie wasn't here to try it."
"You should start a stand." Jason said, drawing both of their eyes. "Make some serious coin."
"I'd pay five drachmas for one, not even lying." When they both looked at Luna in confusion she groaned again. "Never mind. I don't feel like explaining currency to you guys right now."
Jason smiled for a second before he turned his attention to Leo as Luna then began to try and get comfortable, which was really hard considering they were in a literal sewer drain.
"Leo... about this fire stuff you can do... is it true?"
Luna paused to catch Leo's reaction. As she expected, his smile faltered, but it seemed she was the only one who caught it. She wondered if it had anything to do with his mothers death. She had a feeling it was a touchy subject either way, and she felt honored that he'd told her even when they'd technically only known each other for two days.
"Yeah, well..." Leo opened his palm and a flame burst to life.
"That is so cool." Jason breathed. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Leo snuffed out the flame in his palm. "Didn't want to look like a freak."
Luna frowned, letting her head fall against her backpack a little too roughly. The end of something sharp stabbed at the back of her head and she hissed, turning to see that the end of her bronze satyr alarm was sticking out. It's smile winked at her despite the lack of sunlight. Grumbling, she stuffed it back in.
"I have lightning and wind powers," Jason reminded the boy with a soft chuckle. "Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs. And Luna..."
The boy trailed off for a moment and Luna had to pretend that she wasn't listening by fiddling with the headphones around her neck.
"...she's definitely got something just as crazy going on." Jason continued. "You're no more a freak than any of us. And hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off of a building and yell: 'Flame on!'"
Luna tried to hold back her snort, but failed in the end. Leo kicked at her feet softly to show he knew she was listening. He snorted too. "If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!' Trust me, Hephaestus cabin doesn't see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they're super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad."
"Maybe it's the other way around." Jason suggested, his face showing that he felt bad for the way Leo viewed his powers. "Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that's when they're needed most."
Luna suddenly felt like the conversation was too private for her to be listening and felt rude hearing the rest, so she placed her Walkman headphones over her ears and pressed play. After turning down the volume she settled on her stomach, face smushed against the fabric of her backpack.
Maybe a few minutes of rest wouldn't hurt.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
word count: 4644
notes;
thought it would be cute for Leo and Luna
to have a bonding moment because of the
shit they be going thru on this damn
quest
ugh Leo so deserved better
anaway idk when the next update
will be... I have chapters prewritten
but I'm still trying to work out the
plot & stuff || but it shouldn't take
too long ! also I have a percy fic in
my drafts but idk if it will ever see
the light of day 💀
~sabran