For this AU, everything is the same, except Leo, Piper, and Jason found Rebecca at Midas' house.
For context, you can read my Heroes of Olympus fanfiction, which is on my profile.
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"Ahhhggggggh!"
Leo jerked away from the golden cage he'd just sprung the coach from. The satyr darted around the room, swinging his bat everywhere.
"Coach is awake," Leo said to Jason and Piper, who'd just woken up thanks to the screaming satyr. The comment was kind of unnecessary, but that was what Leo was all about.
Gleeson Hedge was capering around on his furry hindquarters, swinging his club and yelling, "Die!" as he smashed the tea set, whacked the sofas, and charged at the throne.
"Coach!" Jason yelled.
Hedge turned, breathing hard. His eyes were so wild, Leo was afraid he might attack. The satyr was still wearing his orange polo shirt and his coach's whistle, but his horns were clearly visible above his curly hair, and his beefy hindquarters were definitely all goat.
"You're the new kid," Hedge said, lowering his club. "Jason." He looked at Leo, then Piper, who'd apparently also just woken up. Her hair looked like it had become a nest for a friendly hamster.
"Valdez, McLean," the coach said. "What's going on? We were at the Grand Canyon. The anemoi thuellai were attacking and—" He zeroed in on the storm spirit cage, and his eyes went back to DEFCON 1. "Die!"
"Whoa, Coach!" Leo stepped in his path, which he thought was pretty brave, even though Hedge was six inches shorter. "It's okay. They're locked up. We just sprang you from the other cage."
"Cage? Cage? What's going on? Just because I'm a satyr doesn't mean I can't have you doing plank push-ups, Valdez!"
"The extraction team came and took us to Camp Half-Blood," Piper explained. "We thought we'd lost you. Then we got word the storm spirits had taken you back to their ... operator. Medea."
"That witch! Wait—that's impossible. She's mortal. She's dead."
"Yeah, well," Leo said, shrugging, "somehow she got not dead anymore."
Hedge nodded, his eyes narrowing. "So! You were sent on a dangerous quest to rescue me. Excellent!"
"Um." Piper got to her feet, holding out her hands so Coach Hedge wouldn't attack her. "Actually, Glee—can I still call you Coach Hedge? Gleeson seems wrong. We're on a quest for something else. We kind of found you by accident."
"Oh." The coach's spirits seemed to deflate, but only for a second. Then his eyes lit up again. "But there are no accidents! Not on quests. This was meant to happen! So, this is the witch's lair, eh? Why is everything gold?"
"Gold?" Jason asked.
Leo looked around and his breath caught in his throat. The room was full of gold—the statues, the tea set Hedge had smashed, the chair that looked like a throne. Even the curtains—which seemed to have opened by themselves at daybreak—appeared to be woven of gold fiber.
"Nice," Leo said, impressed. "No wonder they got so much security."
"This isn't—" Piper stammered. "This isn't Medea's place, Coach. It's some rich person's mansion in Omaha. We got away from Medea and crash-landed here."
"It's destiny, cupcakes!" Hedge insisted. "I'm meant to protect you. What's the quest?"
Before anyone could answer him, a door opened at the far end of the room.
A pudgy man in a white bathrobe stepped out with a golden toothbrush in his mouth. He had a white beard and one of those long, old-fashioned sleeping caps pressed down over his white hair. He froze when he saw them, and the toothbrush fell out of his mouth.
He glanced into the room behind him and called, "Son? Lit, come out here, please. There are strange people in the throne room."
Coach Hedge did the obvious thing. He raised his club and shouted, "Die!"
It took all three of them to hold back the satyr.
"Whoa, Coach!" Jason said. "Bring it down a few notches."
A younger man charged into the room. He was dressed in pajama pants with a sleeveless T-shirt that said cornhuskers, and he held a sword that looked like it could husk a lot of things besides corn. His ripped arms were covered in scars, and his face, framed by curly dark hair, would've been handsome if it wasn't also sliced up.
Lit zeroed in on Jason like he was the biggest threat. He stalked toward Jason, swinging his sword overhead.
"Hold on!" Piper stepped forward, trying for her best calming voice. "This is just a misunderstanding! Everything's fine."
Lit stopped in his tracks, but he still looked wary. It didn't help that Hedge was screaming, "I'll get them! Don't worry!"
"Coach," Jason pleaded, "they may be friendly. Besides, we are kind of trespassing."
"Thank you!" said the old man in the bathrobe. "Now, who are you, and why are you here?"
"Let's all put our weapons down," Piper said. "Coach, you first."
Hedge clenched his jaw. "Just one thwack?"
"No," Piper said.
"What about a compromise? I'll kill them first, and if it turns out they were friendly, I'll apologize."
"No!" Piper insisted.
"Meh." Coach Hedge lowered his club.
Piper gave Lit a friendly sorry-about-that smile. Even with her hair messed up and wearing two-day-old clothes, she looked extremely cute. Leo glanced at Jason and smirked as he saw his jaw tighten.
Lit huffed and sheathed his sword. "You speak well, girl—fortunately for your friends, or I would've run them through."
"Appreciate it," Leo said. "I try not to get run through before lunchtime."
The old man in the bathrobe sighed, kicking the teapot that Coach Hedge had smashed. "Well, since you're here. Please, sit down."
Lit frowned. "Your Majesty—"
"No, no, it's fine, Lit," the old man said. "New land, new customs. They may sit in my presence. After all, they've seen me in my nightclothes. No sense observing formalities." He did his best to smile, though it looked a little forced. "Welcome to my humble home. I am King Midas."
"Midas? Impossible," said Hedge. "He died."
They were sitting on the sofas now, while the king reclined on his throne. Tricky to do that in a bathrobe, and Leo kept worrying the old guy would forget and uncross his legs. Hopefully he was wearing golden boxers under there.
Lit stood behind the throne, both hands on his sword, glancing at Piper and flexing his muscular arms just to be annoying.
Piper sat forward. "What our satyr friend means, Your Majesty, is that you're the second mortal we've met who should be—sorry—dead. King Midas lived thousands of years ago."
"Interesting." The king gazed out the windows at the brilliant blue skies and the winter sunlight. In the distance, downtown Omaha looked like a cluster of children's blocks — way too clean and small for a regular city.
"You know," the king said, "I think I was a bit dead for a while. It's strange. Seems like a dream, doesn't it, Lit?"
"A very long dream, Your Majesty."
"And yet, now we're here. I'm enjoying myself very much. I like being alive better."
"But how?" Piper asked. "You didn't happen to have a ... patron?"
Midas hesitated, but there was a sly twinkle in his eyes. "Does it matter, my dear?"
"We could kill them again," Hedge suggested.
Leo half agreed. This patron didn't sound good at all. Medea had been terrible. Lit was looking pretty sus. As for Midas, he was either evil or completely nuts.
"Coach, not helping," Jason said. "Why don't you go outside and stand guard?"
Leo coughed. "Is that safe? They've got some serious security."
"Oh, yes," the king said. "Sorry about that. But it's lovely stuff, isn't it? Amazing what gold can still buy. Such excellent toys you have in this country!"
He fished a remote control out of his bathrobe pocket and pressed a few buttons—a passcode, Leo guessed.
"There," Midas said. "Safe to go out now."
Coach Hedge grunted. "Fine. But if you need me ..." He winked at Jason meaningfully. Then he pointed at himself, pointed two fingers at their hosts, and sliced a finger across his throat. Very subtle sign language.
"Will do," Leo told him.
"Yeah, thanks," Jason said.
After the satyr left, Piper tried another diplomatic smile. "So ... you don't know how you got here?"
"Oh, well, yes. Sort of," the king said. He frowned at Lit. "Why did we pick Omaha, again? I know it wasn't the weather."
"The oracle," Lit said.
"Yes! I was told there was an oracle in Omaha." The king shrugged. "Apparently I was mistaken. But this is a rather nice house, isn't it? Lit—it's short for Lityerses, by the way—horrible name, but his mother insisted... Lit has plenty of wide-open space to practice his swordplay. He has quite a reputation for that. They called him the Reaper of Men back in the old days."
"Oh." Piper tried to sound enthusiastic. "How nice."
Lit's smile was more of a cruel sneer. Leo was starting to regret Jason sending Hedge out to the front.
"So," Jason said. "All this gold—"
The king's eyes lit up. "Are you here for gold, my boy? Please, take a brochure!"
Leo looked at the brochures on the coffee table. The title said GOLD: Invest for Eternity.
"Um, you sell gold?" Jason asked.
"No, no," the king said. "I make it. In uncertain times like these, gold is the wisest investment, don't you think? Governments fall. The dead rise. Giants attack Olympus. But gold retains its value!"
Leo frowned. "I've seen that commercial."
The king pointed at Leo. "Don't be fooled by cheap imitators! I assure you, I can beat any price for a serious investor. I can make a wide assortment of gold items at a moment's notice."
"But ..." Piper shook her head in confusion. "Your Majesty, you gave up the golden touch, didn't you?"
The king looked astonished. "Gave it up?"
"Yes," Piper said. "You got it from some god—"
"Dionysus," the king agreed. "I'd rescued one of his satyrs, and in return, the god granted me one wish. I chose the golden touch."
"But you accidentally turned your own daughter to gold," Piper remembered. "And you realized how greedy you'd been. So you repented."
"Repented!" King Midas looked at Lit incredulously. "You see, son? You're away for a few thousand years, and the story gets twisted all around. My dear girl, did those stories ever say I'd lost my magic touch?"
"Well, I guess not. They just said you learned how to reverse it with running water, and you brought your daughter back to life."
"That's all true. Sometimes I still have to reverse my touch. There's no running water in the house because I don't want accidents"—he gestured to his statues—"but we chose to live next to a river just in case. Occasionally, I'll forget and pat Lit on the back—"
Lit retreated a few steps. "I hate that."
"I told you I was sorry, son. At any rate, gold is wonderful. Why would I give it up?"
"Well ..." Piper looked truly lost now. "Isn't that the point of the story? That you learned your lesson?"
Midas laughed. "My dear, may I see your backpack for a moment? Toss it here."
Piper hesitated, but she probably wasn't eager to offend the king. She dumped everything out of the pack and tossed it to Midas. As soon as he caught it, the pack turned to gold, like frost spreading across the fabric. It still looked flexible and soft, but definitely gold. The king tossed it back.
"As you see, I can still turn anything to gold," Midas said. "That pack is magic now, as well. Go ahead—put your little storm spirit enemies in there."
"Seriously?" Leo was suddenly interested. He took the bag from Piper and held it up to the cage. As soon as he unzipped the backpack, the winds stirred and howled in protest. The cage bars shuddered. The door of the prison flew open and the winds got vacuumed straight into the pack. Leo zipped it shut and grinned. "Gotta admit. That's cool."
"You see?" Midas said. "My golden touch a curse? Please. I didn't learn any lesson, and life isn't a story, girl. Honestly, my daughter Zoe was much more pleasant as a gold statue."
"She talked a lot," Lit offered.
"Exactly! And so I turned her back to gold." Midas pointed. There in the corner was a golden statue of a girl with a shocked expression, as if she were thinking, Dad!
"That's horrible!" Piper said.
"Nonsense. She doesn't mind. I'll tell you who does mind, though," he said with a note of exasperation.
He pointed at another statue of a girl. This one held two swords and stared ahead with a vicious expression. Something about her statue was off. It was as if the gold had only halfway covered her, as if she was fighting back.
"The daughter of Hades," said the king dispassionately. "She and Lit served in the Titan Army before she killed him."
"Got jealous of my rank and lured me into a death trap," Lit elaborated. "Then after her little boyfriend died, she betrayed Kronos and fought for the gods. She always bragged about how she was so important -- the Malignant Spirit -- but it seems that I have the last laugh. She found her way here, looking for some missing demigod, and stumbled right into my trap. She'll be stuck here for eternity."
"That is, if we can find a way to stop her from fighting off the gold and coming back every few days," Midas muttered. "But yes, I still have my gold. Besides, if I'd learned my lesson, would I have gotten these?"
Midas pulled off his oversize sleeping cap, and Leo didn't know whether to laugh or get sick. Midas had long fuzzy gray ears sticking up from his white hair—like Bugs Bunny's, but they weren't rabbit ears. They were donkey ears.
"Oh, wow," Leo said. "I didn't need to see that."
"Terrible, isn't it?" Midas sighed. "A few years after the golden touch incident, I judged a music contest between Apollo and Pan, and I declared Pan the winner. Apollo, sore loser, said I must have the ears of an ass, and voilà. This was my reward for being truthful. I tried to keep them a secret. Only my barber knew, but he couldn't help blabbing." Midas pointed out another golden statue—a bald man in a toga, holding a pair of shears. "That's him. He won't be telling anyone's secrets again."
The king smiled. Leo knew he'd been right to be wary of Midas. His eyes had a merry glow to them—the look of a madman who knew he was mad, accepted his madness, and enjoyed it. "Yes, gold has many uses. I think that must be why I was brought back, eh Lit? To bankroll our patron."
Lit nodded. "That and my good sword arm."
"So you do have a patron," Jason said. "You work for the giants."
King Midas waved his hand dismissively. "Well, I don't care for giants myself, of course. But even supernatural armies need to get paid. I do owe my patron a great debt. I tried to explain that to the last group that came through, but they were very unfriendly. Wouldn't cooperate at all."
Jason slipped his hand into his pocket and grabbed his gold coin. "The last group?"
"Hunters," Lit snarled. "Blasted girls from Artemis."
"When?" Jason demanded. "What happened?"
Lit shrugged. "Few days ago? I didn't get to kill them, unfortunately. They were looking for some evil wolves, or something. Said they were following a trail, heading west. Missing demigod—I don't recall."
Midas scratched his donkey ears. "Very unpleasant young ladies, those Hunters," he recalled. "They absolutely refused to be turned into gold. But lucky for us, the daughter of Hades was with them. Stayed behind for some heroic sacrifice."
Lit laughed and made his voice high-pitched. " 'Thalia, go! I'll hold them off! Find Percy!' Ridiculous girl."
"Much of the security system outside I installed to keep that sort of thing from happening again, you know. I don't have time for those who aren't serious investors."
Jason stood warily and glanced at Piper and Leo. Leo got the message.
"Well," Piper said, managing a smile. "It's been a great visit. Welcome back to life. Thanks for the gold bag."
"Oh, but you can't leave!" Midas said. "I know you're not serious investors, but that's all right! I have to rebuild my collection."
Lit was smiling cruelly. The king rose, and Leo and Piper moved away from him.
"Don't worry," the king assured them. "You don't have to be turned to gold. I give all my guests a choice—join my collection, or die at the hands of Lityerses. Really, it's good either way."
Piper tried to use her charmspeak. "Your Majesty, you can't—"
Quicker than any old man should've been able to move, Midas lashed out and grabbed her wrist.
"No!" Jason yelled.
But a frost of gold spread over Piper, and in a heartbeat she was a glittering statue.
There was a strangled shout from behind them. Everyone turned to look. The Daughter of Hades' skin was slowly but surely turning back from gold. Glaring fiercely, she slowly raised one of her swords, fighting against the gold, and pointed it at Midas.
"Oh, not again," Midas sighed. "Lit, are you sure you don't just want to kill her?"
With another defiant shout, the Daughter of Hades broke free.
Leo's insides churned. The girl's eyes were pure black; her expression was full of rage.
"Stay back," she told Leo and Jason, but the voice she spoke in was low and gravelly, almost evil.
Jason seized Leo's arm and yanked him back. They tripped over the gold sofa and fell on to the gold floor. Eager to see what was about to happen, Leo scrambled up and peeked over the couch.
The girl's hand was outstretched, and Lit's sword was yanked out of his hand as it came speeding toward Rebecca. She caught it and bent it over her knee.
A chill ran down Leo's back. No normal person could be that strong.
The girl charged Lit. When Midas reached out to touch her, she swung her swords at him, slicing off his left hand. Midas screamed in agony and bent over his bloody stump of an arm. Lit braced for her swords, but she didn't use them on him. Instead, she plunged her hand straight into his chest like it was made of Jell-O and ripped out something glowing red and black.
"Your heart, Reaper of Men," the Daughter of Hades said, a sick smile on her face. "Tainted with all of your kills. It's back to the Underworld with you."
She gave the heart a squeeze, resulting in an agonized scream from Lityerses.
"Die, Reaper of Men," she growled, crushing the heart into dust. Lityerses collapsed on the gold floor, his eyes lifeless.
"Um, Jason," Leo whispered, his voice an octave higher. "Should we... like, run, or something?"
"We can't leave without Piper," Jason said, looking conflicted as the girl stalked toward Midas, ripped out his heart, and killed him too.
"Jason--"
"Wait."
The girl froze. She turned around and faced the sofa. Leo instinctively recoiled. She looked around at Lit and Midas' bodies.
"Well, shit," she said monotonously.
Then she looked over at Leo and Jason.
"Shit," she said again.
Then she started to fall sideways. Jason darted forward and caught her by the arms before she hit the ground. Leo nervously followed Jason.
"Are you okay?" Jason asked.
"I dunno," the girl said. "What happened?"
"You just killed those guys," Leo said.
"Yeah, I guess so." the girl looked up at them. "Was I not supposed to?" Her eyes weren't all black anymore, just her irises, and Leo was pretty sure that was her natural eye color: onyx with flecks of gold and green. They were actually kind of pretty. She was pretty.
Leo knew what that meant: another girl who wouldn't give him the time of day no matter how much he pursued her.
The girl's eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and she went limp.
"Oh, gods," Leo said. "Is she dead?"
"No," Jason said, feeling the girl's wrist for a pulse. "Just passed out. Let's get out of here."
Then the front door burst open, and Coach Hedge charged in, club ready. His mouth was covered with dirt, snow, and grass.
"What'd I miss?" He asked. He looked at the girl, who was now lying on the floor. "Who's she?"
"Daughter of Hades," Jason said. "At least, that's what Midas said. Can you help us get her out of here?"
Hedge sniffed the girl, then recoiled. "I'll get Piper. That girl is full of nasty Underworld magic."
Leo wasn't quite sure what that meant, but he helped Hedge lug the golden Piper out of the mansion. They found a stream and dunked her to get rid of the gold. She started changing back, but wasn't waking up.
"How are we going to get out of here?" asked Leo, who'd had to look away from the parts of his dragon slung all over the yard.
"I can harness the wind spirits," Jason said. "I'll have to focus completely on them or we'll get blown away, so I need you and Hedge to hold onto Piper and that girl."
"Got it," Hedge said, lifting up Piper with surprising steadiness.
That left Leo to hold onto the new girl.
Jason let the spirits out of the backpack. "Hold on tight, guys."
Leo decided he would never take air spirit transport again. It was bumpy and uncomfortable, and he almost dropped the Daughter of Hades (he really needed to figure out her name) several times.
Finally, Jason had the spirits drop them off at some cave in the Rocky Mountains. Leo started up a fire while Jason and Coach Hedge made the girls comfortable.
"There're blankets in here," Jason said, bringing a few out of his bag. "Cold?"
"Nah," Leo said. "I'm too hot for that."
Jason snorted, then proceeded to cover the girls with the blankets. He came to sit down next to Leo by the fire and stared at the new girl.
"What're we doing here?" Leo asked. "Weird place to stop."
"You know that glittery air trail I saw yesterday?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I just followed it, and it stopped here."
"Ah, okay."
Silence. Jason stared pensively at the new girl.
"She seems familiar," he said, probably referring to the daughter of Hades. "I think I've seen her before, but I have no idea who she is. Is she from camp, coach?"
The coach shrugged and went back to warming up by the fire, but he kept casting wary glances at the girl.
"Annabeth did say something about a daughter of Hades," Jason said. "Right before you came in with Festus, we were talking about that 'gilded traitor turned loyal' part of the prophecy. Annabeth said there was only one person it could mean, and she wasn't there at camp. She was supposedly one of the people out searching for Percy Jackson."
"Midas said she was looking for a missing demigod," Leo remembered. "Maybe it was him."
"Maybe." Jason turned back to the fire, but Leo continued to watch her, wondering who the Hades she was.
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Part two drops next week!
Enjoy and comment!
~~~~Kingfisher~~~~