"After all those years on the streets, I finally feel like I'm home"
"You're lying" Leo didn't even have to look up, he knew her better than anyone.
"You're right, I was always at home with you"
In which there's an unlikely friendship (... and ma...
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"ALEX"
Leo kept calling her name as he held him, though he'd almost lost hope. She'd been unconscious for two minutes now. Her body was steaming, her eyes rolled back in her head. He couldn't tell if she was even breathing.
"It's no use, child." Hera stood over them in her simple black robes and shawl.
Leo hadn't seen the goddess go nuclear. Thankfully he'd closed her eyes, but he could see the after effects. Every vestige of winter was gone from the valley. No signs of battle, either. The monsters had been vaporised. The ruins had been restored to what they were before-still ruins, but with no evidence that they'd been overrun by a horde of wolves, storm spirits, and six-armed ogres.
Even the Hunters had been revived. Most waited at a respectful distance in the meadow, but Thalia knelt by Leo's side, her hand on Alex's forehead.
Leo glared up at the goddess. "This is your fault. Do something!"
"Do not address me that way, boy. I am the queen-"
"Fix her! Please!" Leo pleaded, tears streaming shamelessly down his cheeks. He turned back to Alex whose head he was cradling in his lap. "I can't lose you too Lex, please. You promised"
"I'm sorry" Leo sniffed. "I'm sorry, we shouldn't have taken this quest... I thought I could stop it. I'm sorry"
Piper and Jason were too stunned to move. They had never seen Leo like this, he was always the one to keep his feelings hidden, but Alex was his Achilles heel.
He bent and pressed a kiss to her lips. He wished he had some more time with her, he wouldn't let himself believe that she was truly gone. Leo remembered the stories Alex used to tell him about princesses waking up after death because of true love's kiss, but who was he kidding, they were just stories.
All he needed was another miracle.
"Why would you do that?" Jason fumed at Hera.
"I unleashed my power to help you, fool!" Hera cried. "I became pure energy so I could disintegrate the monsters, restore this place, and even save these miserable Hunters from the ice."
"But mortals can't look upon you in that form!" Piper shouted. "You've killed her!"
Jason shook her head in dismay, "That's what our prophecy meant. Death of the sea, through Hera's rage. Come on you're a goddess. Do something! Bring her back."
Leo half heard their conversation, but mostly he was focused on Alex's face. "She's breathing!" he announced.
"Impossible," Hera said. "I wish it were true, child, but no mortal has ever-"
"Alex" Leo called, he was desperate. He couldn't lose her. "Listen to me. You can do this. Come back. You're going to be fine."
Nothing happened. Had he imagined her breath stirring?
