BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

75.

EDEN WOKE UP on a beach.

She thought that it was her dad, finally talking to her for the first time after their last disaster of a conversation ( "basically, I know I'm not supposed to play favorites, but your brother Percy's obvi my favorite lmao fuck u" "thanks daddy boy" ) before she realized that she recognized this beach. She was literally here a week or two ago.

Spinning around, she saw him. The hero she'd wanted to be ( besides Achilles ) and then suddenly not wanted to be.

"Who sent me here?" Eden laughed without humor, standing up and looking at Hercules angrily. "Is this some kind of sick joke? Well, they were wrong to send me here, I'm going to kill you now."

"You can't, Fairchild," Hercules said, almost boredly, though the fear in his eyes that Eden had been taught to detect was  betraying him. "You need me if you want your girlfriend to live."

Eden froze from where she was striding toward the fallen from grace hero. "What have you done with her?"

"You think too much of me. I haven't done anything," he said, and Eden was just so fucking angry at him. "Khione was on your ship."

"And now?" Eden snapped. "I saw Jason get frozen. Leo shot up in the sky. What's happened to her? Tell me." She took out a pistol and pointed it at him. "Or I will kill you."

"She's still alive, if that's what you're asking." Hercules didn't look fazed. "Looking for you. She can't find you, if that's what you're wondering."

"Wow, it's almost as if we're in the Mediterranean, and they're in the Adriatic. Woo." Eden raised one of her hands sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Bring me back to her. Or else."

Hercules gritted his teeth, obviously mad. Good. "I can't, Fairchild."

"Why not?"

"Because I can give you power."

Eden hesitated, before rolling her eyes. "Why would I want power when I already have Piper?"

"She won't survive without your power. And you'll be all alone, in camp, mourning her death for years. Just like I mourned Deianira."

That made her listen to what he had to say. "What kind of power?" She asked Hercules quietly.

"The power that you want," he told her. "To defeat Gaea."

Eden laughed bitterly. "There's no way you're giving me immortality."

Hercules stared down at her. "I don't know what it's going to do. But it's necessary for you to win."

"Didn't you try and kill us when we wanted to get into the Mediterranean?" Eden asked the hero, crossing her arms. "You literally shouted a threat at us as we left. All because Hera made us go on that quest. Now, I fucking hate Hera with my life. I would kill her as many times as I have slaughtered in my life. But you could've been the person to single-handedly doom the entire world, all because of your fucking pride, which even I don't have. So, why are you helping me now?"

Hercules was quiet. Brooding. Deciding how to answer this question.

"You remind me of when I was a hero," he said. "Bold, strong, cocky. And the rage you have . . . I've never quite seen it in anyone else but you." He looked at her, and Eden almost saw regret. Longing. "I've watched you over the years. You've made Achilles proud. And when you came here, I was surprised. I thought that you were done being a hero, after all that you've gone through."

"It was always her," Eden said. "You know that I'd do anything for her."

Hercules nodded grimly.