Hypnotised (Piper McLean x OC)

Silena was a hero

"I don't want to hide anything from you guys anymore." Piper sighed.

Leo and Jason glanced up at her, their mouths full of burger. I sat up slightly and turned to face her, ignoring the dizziness that washed over me.

"Three nights before the Grand Canyon trip," Piper continued. "I had a dream vision – a giant, telling me my father had been taken hostage. He told me I had to cooperate or my dad would be killed."

The flames crackled.

Finally, Jason said, "Enceladus? You mentioned that name before."

Coach Hedge whistled. "Big giant. Breathes fire. Not somebody I want barbecuing my daddy goat."

I gave him a shut-up look. "What then?"

Piper's lip trembled. "I- I tried to reach my dad but all I got was his personal assistant, she told me not to worry."

"Jane." I breathed, my eyes widening. "Medea never told me why she controlled her. I didn't realise..."

Piper nodded. "To get my dad back I had to sabotage this quest. I didn't realise it would be the three of us and I definitely didn't realise we'd find Lottie, some presumed dead warrior demigoddess." She threw her arms in the air. "Then after the quest started, Enceladus sent me another warning. He told me he wanted you guys dead. He wants me to lead you to a mountain. I don't know exactly which one but it's in the Bay Area – I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit. I have to be there by noon on the solstice, tomorrow. An exchange."

Piper stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact. I felt a lump form in my throat, she wasn't the first child of Aphrodite I had watched convince herself she was a traitor.

Jason shook his head, staring at Piper. "God, Piper, I'm so sorry."

Leo nodded. "No kidding. You've been carrying that around for a week? Piper, we could help you."

Piper glared at the two boys. "Why don't you yell at me or something? I was ordered to kill you!"

I laughed quietly, shaking my head. "Gods, you remind me of Silena." I mumbled, tears brimming my eyes.

Piper's face dropped. "Wasn't she the traitor?"

I sighed. "Is that what they say about her now? Wow. I really thought campers might be nicer to each other after the war."

Piper frowned. "But she worked for the Titans."

"And I worked for Medea." I shrugged. "We've all done things to protect ourselves or the people we love. We may not be proud of them but we do it because it's all we think we can do. Humans have the greatest downfall of expecting too much from themselves. We carry these expectations as if they are the minimum we can do. Piper you've done what a lot of people are too afraid to do, what Silena was too afraid to do, you spoke to people about it."

"She's right." Jason said, glancing at me. "Plus, you've saved us all on this quest. I'd put my life in your hands any day."

"Same." Leo said. "Can I have a hug? I feel like this is a hug moment."

"You don't get it!" Piper said. "I've probably just killed my dad telling you this!"

"I doubt it." Coach Hedge belched. He was eating his tofu burger folded inside the paper plate, chewing it all like a taco. "Giant hasn't got what he wants yet, so he still needs your dad for leverage. He'll wait until the deadline passes, see if you show up. He wants you to divert the quest to this mountain, right?"

Piper nodded uncertainly.

"So that means Hera is being kept somewhere else." Hedge reasoned. "And she has to be saved by the same day. So, you have to choose – rescue your dad, or rescue Hera. If you go after Hera, then Enceladus takes care of your dad. Besides, Enceladus would never let you go even if you did cooperate. You're obviously one of the eight of the Great Prophecy."

One of the eight. Medea had told me about the prophecy only a few days prior to the others finding me. She'd told me I was one of them and Gaia wanted to prevent me from fighting on the gods' side. Now it seemed I had ran into the very people who I would have to fulfil this prophecy alongside.

"So we have no choice." Piper said miserably. "We have to save Hera, or the giant king gets unleashed. That's our quest. The world depends on it. Enceladus seems to have ways of watching me. He isn't stupid. He'll know if we change course and go the wrong way. He'll kill my dad."

"He's not going to kill your dad." Leo said. "We'll save him."

"We don't have time!" Piper cried. "Besides, it's a trap."

"We're your friends beauty queen." Leo said. "We're not going to let your dad die. We just have to figure out a plan."

Coach Hedge grumbled. "Would help if we knew where this mountain was. Maybe Aeolus can tell you that. The Bay Area has a bad reputation for demigods. Old home of the Titans, Mount Othrys, sits over Mount Tam, where Atlas holds up the sky. I hope that's not the mountain you saw."

I felt a shift in my chest and my eyes widened. "They took Annabeth there. Zoe... Who's Zoe?" I muttered.

Piper glanced over at me and took my hand. "I don't think so, this was inland."

Jason frowned at the fire like he was trying to remember something. "Bad reputation... that doesn't seem right. The Bay Area..."

"You think you've been there?" I asked, trying to rid my mind of the memories roaring in my ears.

"I..." He looked like he was almost on the edge of a break-through. Then the anguish came back into his eyes. "I don't know. Hedge, what happened to Mount Othrys?"

Hedge took another bite of paper and burger. "Well, Kronos built a new palace there last summer. Big nasty place, was going to be the headquarters for his new kingdom and all. Weren't any battles there though. Kronos marched on Manhattan, tried to take Olympus. If I remember right, he left some other Titans in charge of his palace but after Kronos was defeated in Manhattan, the whole thing just crumbled on its own."

"No." Jason said.

Everyone looked at him.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Leo asked.

"That's not what happened. I-" He tensed, looking towards the cave entrance. "Did you hear that?"

For a second, nothing. Then I heard it: howls piercing the night.

Hey guys, been a while, sorry about that.

As I said when I updated Inferno yesterday, I went hiking last weekend and the weekend before and I've had a lot of homework, so I haven't had much time for writing unfortunately. 

I was watching the same Stiles Stilinski edit on repeat while writing and editing this so don't mind any grammatical errors please :')

If you want to know more about Lottie's backstory btw, I just posted a chapter to my book The Stories Behind the Stories (about my OC's) which goes more into depth about Lottie pre-death and while working for Medea.

I really appreciate you guys and would like to especially thank  @Xalitor_mobo @DragonLemur @cobolotobolo @reynas_wife_4ever and @Ninja541 for voting on this story. Votes and comments are literally a Wattpad writer's best friends I swear to god :')

I hope you are having a good day and if not then I hope reading this made you feel better, even just a tad.

Bye from Corgi :)

P.S. (feel free to skip) Just a reminder that all characters (apart from Lottie) belong to Rick Riordan, this is merely a fanfiction based off the Heroes of Olympus series.