Silver | HoO

ELEVEN

Emilio nearly pushed Jason off of the flying dragon when said demigod shot away yelling, "Cyclops!"

"Fuck, dude," Emilio yelped, having jumped a little bit before gripping onto Jason's waist tighter from fear of his own movement, "Don't do that."

"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. How you feeling?"

"How did you—the Cyclops—"

"Leo ripped them apart," Emilio said.

"He was amazing. He can summon fire—" Piper started.

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly.

Piper laughed. "Shut up, Valdez. We're going to tell him. Get over it."

And they did—how Leo single-handedly defeated the Cyclopes family; how Emilio freed Jason and Piper, 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.

"How did you escape those chains?" Piper asked.

Emilio grinned slightly, "One of my tricks. No lock can keep a thief out. Or, in this case, in."

When Piper told him about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, the one in the purple shirt who spoke Latin, Jason looked like his head was going to explode.

"I'm not alone, then," Jason said and Emilio frowned. "There are others like me."

"Jason," Piper said, "you were never alone. You've got us."

"I—I know ... but something Hera said. I was having a dream..."

He told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage. He told them how he was a 'peace offering' and a 'bridge'.

Elle had been right.

Gods she was going to be insufferable about it, Emilio thought to himself.

"An exchange?" Piper asked. "What does that mean?"

Jason shook his head. "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—"

"Or save us," Piper said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy—that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Leo cleared his throat. "About that ... she kind of appeared to me back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."

Emilio wasn't sure he'd heard that right. "Did you say ... Porta-Potty?"

Leo told them about the big face in the factory yard. "I don't know if she's completely unkillable," he said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"

"She's trying to divide us." Piper said, her tone seemed off.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked, assumingly noticing her tone too.

"I just ... Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"Enceladus?" Emilio asked. That was ... oddly specific.

"I mean ..." Piper's voice quavered. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."

Emilio felt bad being suspicious of Piper but something about the conversation screamed 'red flag' to him. He didn't think she was bad or a traitor but he knew something was going on and he wasn't going to call attention to it until he knew what it was.