ANTI-HERO, j.grace

FOURTEEN

"Cyclops!"

Flying through the air had admittedly been pretty boring. The only thing they could see from so high up was the white clusters of the clouds around them, and the three conscious demigods were all sat in silence as the events from the warehouse settled around them. Klein, at least, sat in silence. Piper and Leo were chatting aimlessly every now and again, and it was more than likely they assumed that Klein was either ignoring them or asleep.

In reality it was neither, but she was happy to accept their lack of conversation with her as the chance to finally just sit there and think.

At least until Jason woke up, head knocking against hers as he shot up to a sitting position.

"Ow!"

Jason would have fallen right off of the dragon if Klein didn't have a hold on him, one of her arms wrapped around his torso as the other now cradled the side of her face.

"D-Detroit... didn't we crash land?" He stammered, "I thought-"

"It's okay. We got away." Leo said, "You got a nasty concussion though - how are you feeling?"

"How did you... the cyclops..."

Piper grinned, "Leo tore them apart! He was amazing, he can summon fire-"

"It was nothing."

"Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell him, get over it."

"It was kinda cool." Klein added.

Piper filled Jason in on everything that had gone down at the warehouse, from the cyclops grabbing her, to Leo controlling the robot arms and taking out two of the cyclopses, to how they were now flying off on Festus once more. She spared just a few details - save for Leo's interjections of 'well Klein's the one who was shooting them with arrows so I didn't get turned into cyclops chow'. 

Jason turned to Klein then, the memory in his eyes replaying the look of downright terror on her face when he watched one of the campers from Cabin Seven force the bow into her hands before they left.

Klein didn't meet his gaze.

Piper also told the boy about the last kid the cyclopses spoke about eating - the son of Mercury in a purple shirt that spoke Latin.

Jason looked like his head was going to explode, and he definitely felt like it.

"I'm not alone, then." He looked relieved, "There are others like me."

For somebody who had shown up in a trio and then taken off onto a quest with her another demigod, Klein wouldn't exactly classify Jason as "alone". She understood what he meant, she felt what he meant.

Jason had people around him, but there was no recollection of home. Klein had people around her, but she watched her home be torn to pieces.

Hurt flashed across Piper's face, noticeable no matter how hard she tried to hide it, "Jason, you were never alone. You've got us."

"I know... but something Hera said... I had a dream..."

For a goddess that was locked prisoner in a cage and couldn't tell any of the actual gods what was going on, Hera sure had a lot to say to Jason. The boy told the group all about his dream - the sleeping enemy, some sort of exchange.

"An exchange? What does that mean?"

Klein frowned, "And what the fuck does she think she's exchanging? Your memories for a one way ticket out of jail?"

Jason just shook his head, "I don't know, but Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way."