𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 •| ⊱ Jason Grace¹

•| ⊱ SIXTEEN

[ chapter sixteen: hermia ]

° • ° • °

Hermia dreamed she was back at her parents summer home. The beautiful blue waves crashed against the shore. Mia oddly felt at peace, but if she was dead why did evey part of her body hurt?

"Am I dead?" Mia asked to the wind.

"You're not dead, my daughter." Said a man's voice from the ocean. "I just figured this would be the most comfortable place to speak to you."

"Who are you?" Mia asked as the man became visible.

"I know we've never meet, but it's me you're father."

Mia watched the man and as she stared into his sea green eyes, she knew he was telling the truth. "What are you doing here?" She asked. "I thought Olympus was closed."

"It is, but I couldn't leave you at a time like this."

Hermia froze. She got a sick feeling her father knew she was working for Gaea. She didn't know what he had planned to say, but she knew it wasn't good.

"I know you have a lot to think about, but I'm here to tell you to choose good. Choose to live a new life and leave your old one in the past. You'd be surprised how much you can miss if you're stuck in the past."

° • ° • °

Hermia hadn't been awake for that long when she heard Jason yell, "Cyclops!"

"Whoa, okay Superman. Calm down." Hermia had been sitting behind the boy with her one arm holding his waist to keep him balanced. Leo sat in front, driving while Piper sat behind the two. They flew peacefully through the winter sky as if nothing had happened.

"D-Detroit," Jason stammered. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought-"

"It's okay," Leo said. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion and Hermia was passed out through most of it. How you feeling?"

"How did you-the Cyclops-"

"Leo ripped them apart," Piper said as Hermia watched Leo. "He was amazing. He can summon fire-"

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly.

Piper laughed. "Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell them. Get over it."

And she did-how Leo single-handedly defeated the Cyclopes family; how they freed Jason and Mia, then noticed the Cyclopes starting to re-form; how Leo had replaced the dragon's wiring and gotten them back in the air just as they'd started to hear the Cyclopes roaring for vengeance inside the factory.