ELLE WISHED SHE'D brought a speaker. Music was exactly what she needed to fill the awkward silence that came with trudging through Porta-Potty slush with a boy you barely know.

Of course the stupid dragon had to crash on a row of Porta-Potties, she thought bitterly. Just my luck.

The silence between them was consuming. Elle could barely focus on finding Festus when tension made her stomach twist and her mouth open and close like a fish as she tried for a conversation starter.

It didn't help that they were trudging through porta-potty slush. Elle pulled her shirt over her nose to try and block the smell, but it did little. As the cherry-on-top to her already nightmarish situation, the snow beneath her feet was covered in a sheet of ice, causing her to slip frequently. It was a miracle she hadn't face-planted into the slush yet.

A glimmer of bronze caught her eye, and Elle stood straight in excitement.

Thank the gods. I don't think I can take another minute of this.

"Leo!" she exclaimed, pointing forward. "It's Festus!"

Leo's eyes snapped up and he too stood taller. As his eyes caught on the bronze metal, he broke into a jog, carefullying jumping over broken pieces of Porta-Potty.

By the time she caught up to Leo, he was stepping around the dragon, searching under its limbs and poking at its metal surface.

"What happened to him?" Elle asked.

Leo continued his search, but answered, annoyance laced through his words. "Nothing. He's in perfect condition. The fireball came from the built-up gasses in the Porta-Potties, not Festus."

The boy pried open the control panel on the back of the dragon's head and Leo released a nasty curse. "Oh, Festus. What the heck."

"What's wrong?" Elle wondered, stepping through the snow to get closer. "Oh shit."

The wiring inside Festus' head had frozen over. Every inch of the control panel was covered in icy swirls.

"I don't understand," Leo muttered. "It should be too hot in here for ice to form.

"Khione," Elle spat.

Leo turned his head, eyes meeting hers. Elle's heart hurt for him. While his face was scrunched in thought, his eyes were sad. He'd worked so hard on this dragon, and here it was, laying in a steaming mess of crushed Porta-Potty.

"You think?" he asked.

Elle's hands curled into fists, nails biting into the skin of her palms. "Who else? You said it yourself, it's too hot for ice to form naturally and Wannabe Elsa already has it out for us."

Leo sighed. "Sucks that she's evil. She's so pretty."

Elle couldn't help herself from releasing a short laugh. "Isn't that the point? Ice is pretty but it's cold and awful?"

The boy shrugged. "I guess."

He was clearly in no laughing mood, so Elle returned to her silence.

She stepped back, giving Leo space to work as she watched. His fingers moved nimbly, drawing items from his belt, cleaning the control disk, and summoning fire to melt away the ice. Elle assumed being so in his element would ease him, like when a baby gets rocked by its mother, but Leo's hunched shoulders, frequent mumbles, and twisted expression proved he could not be more distressed.

Elle wished she knew what to say to lighten his mood, but it was hard when she too was distressed. Nothing was going right and it didn't seem like things were going to get any better. Elle thought back to her conversation with Aris, when he'd mentioned that they pushed through. She wondered again if this was what her life was like, if things always went this way, or if she was just suffering from a particularly bad batch of luck.

To pass the time, Elle had settled into a low crouch and exclaimed her nails. The tiniest specks of blue nail polish remained on her pinkie and ring fingers. Countless crescent-moon scars decorated her palms. New ones were dotted with blood.

Elle traced the lines on her palm, thinking of those silly predictions people insisted they told. Was it the line that curved your thumb that indicated lifespan? Or was it the one near the top of her hand?

And which one indicated her love life? Icy blue eyes crossed her mind, met with a wide smile and blond hair.

Her vision clouded, and she felt herself sinking into a memory. The now-familiar pain struck behind her eyes.

Elle was seated in the backseat of a car, the goddess of love beside her.

Aphrodite was stunning. Her hair was curled into ringlets, the dark locks falling past her shoulders and framing her face perfectly. Her irises were cobalt blue and her eyes rimmed with dark ink. Her lips were full, coated in dark pink gloss. There was no fat beneath her chin, no pimples on her face, no scars to ruin her perfect appearance.

She looked exactly as Elle always wished she could.

"Now you are someone I've been dying to talk to for a long time."

Elle blinked. "Me?"

Aphrodite nodded eagerly. "I've soooo many plans for your future."

Thirteen-year-old Elle stared at the goddess in disbelief.

"I thought you wanted to talk to me about the quest?"

Aphrodite waved her off. "There are other gods to talk to you about that. I want to talk to you about your love life. Famous heroes are always the most exciting."

Elle felt her face begin to burn as the word love reached her ears, the rest of Aphrodite's sentence going ignored. "I'm thirteen. There's not much to talk about."

Tossing her head back, Aphrodite laughed. "No, no, not now. I want to talk about your future."

There was nothing Elle wanted more in that moment than to be away from this goddess, but curiosity overtook embarrassment and she found herself asking, "My future?"

"That boy has feelings for you."

"What boy?"

Aphrodite met her gaze, arching one perfect eyebrow. "The boy who is risking his life to go on this quest for you."

"Aris?!"

"But," Aphrodite said, as though she hadn't just changed everything for Elle, "there will be another boy."

Still grappling with the reveal of Aris' crush, Elle's mouth fell open. "Who?" she exclaimed.

"I don't know," Aphrodite answered. "I am not Apollo — fortunately. I see your love, Penelope. Your feelings and the feelings of those who care for you. There will be another, and you will have to make a choice."

Elle didn't like the sound of that.

The goddess must have sensed her turmoil, because she reached out, taking Elle's hand in her own.

Her blue irises met Elle's matching ones, and Elle prepared herself for whatever words were going to come out of the goddess mouth.

But no amount of bracing herself could've prepared her for Aphrodite to screech "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Elle jolted. She fell from her crouched position, fortunately missing the potty sludge, but unfortunately crashing directly into Festus' burning hot metal.

She screamed, pushing her body off and to her feet.

The girl blinked rapidly, trying to separate reality from memory. Leo stood a little ways from her, staring out at... nothing?

Elle knew it was his voice that had come from Aphrodite's lips, so there must've been something there. The boy was breathing heavily, seething with anger. He was shaking, but Elle wasn't sure if it was from cold, anger, or something else entirely.

"Leo... what's going on?"

He continued to stare at the ground for a long, tense moment. Then, he reached into his tool belt, extracting a heavy, double-faced hammer. It was the biggest hammer Elle had ever seen.

"Jason and Piper are in trouble," was all he said as he jumped off Festus' back and ran back toward the warehouse.

Drawing her pen from her pocket, Elle followed, not caring about the puddles she leapt through.

She pushed aside the mess of emotions in her heart and buried the jumble of thoughts in her head. She could worry about Leo and her memories later. Right now, she needed to save her quest-mates.

♆

Something was seriously wrong with Leo.

He had seen something before, when Elle had been overtaken with a vision, and it was messing with his head. His breathing was heavy, his hands were clenched, and every so often he would mutter to himself.

"Leo," Elle whispered for what had to be the thousandth time. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied, as he'd been doing, pairing it with a smile.

He wasn't, and Elle was prepared to push the subject, when they reached the doors of the warehouse and a voice rang out.

"Leo, help! Please, Leo! Help!"

Leo froze mid-step. He glanced at Elle once, panicked, before taking off toward what was unmistakably Piper's voice.

Elle didn't follow. Something was wrong. There was a strange smell coming from inside the factory — like something was burning. Jason and Piper had no reason to start a fire, nor did they have the right materials.

"Elle!" It was Jason's voice now. "Elle, help us!" His voice grew uncertain as he called, "Help me?"

Elle ignored his pleading, racking her brain for any memory of voice-mimicking monsters. Are there any?

Dashing inside the warehouse, Elle tried to catch up with Leo before he made his presence known. Whatever these monsters were—

Monocle Motors! The singular eye of the logo flashed across Elle's mind. Cyclopes. How had she not realized before?!

"Leo!" she hissed.

"Here."

Silently, Elle tiptoed toward his voice. She reached a large crane and ducked behind it, crouching beside Leo.

"It's a trap," she whispered.

"I know. Look."

Elle followed his finger, peeking her head around the machinery to see three massive silhouettes huddled together. One began to speak, its voice so deep Elle felt the ground tremble beneath her.

"Keep going," it barked.

A different silhouette shifted. "Leo!" it screamed in Piper's voice. "Help! Elle! Hel—" It cut itself off with a huff. When it spoke again, its voice had shifted into a feral snarl. "Bah, there's nobody there. The girl's a liar."

There was a loud snap! and an orange light flickered to life — an emergency flare. With the welcome arrival of light, Elle's eyes scanned the floor for any sign of Piper and Jason, praying they hadn't already been killed.

In the dark, Elle thought there was an old car engine dangling from a crane, but no. It was Jason and Piper. The pair hung upside down, bodies tied tightly with chains all the way up to their necks. Piper wriggled desperately, but Jason remained imbobile. For a moment, Elle's heart stopped as her breath caught in her throat. She peered closer. His lips twitched, and Elle sighed in relief. He was hurt — the swelling welt on his head was a clear indication — but he was alive.

One of the cyclopes had tossed the flare into a makeshift fire pit, and the ancient tires exploded into roaring flames. The sudden added light drew Elle's attention, causing her gaze to land on the long metal pole suspended above the pit — a spit.

Great. Fucking fantastic. Jason and Piper are about to become cyclops lunch. Can this day get any worse?

Elle took in the cyclopes appearances and wrinkled her nose. If Aphrodite saw them now, the goddess would faint at the sight of the chainmail loincloth and fiberglass toga.

Beside her, Leo began to shake.

"Holy shit," he mumbled.

Once again, Elle felt bad for the boy. While he had, technically, signed up for this quest, seeing the danger up close was different than being told you'd have to face it. Seeing your friends dangling above a fire added an extra level of horror that made even Elle's stomach twist.

"We got this," Elle whispered in his ear. "Three against two isn't so bad."

Leo turned his head toward her slowly, eyes so large it was almost comical. "They're twelve feet tall."

Elle forced a smile. "Easy peasy."

Leo shook his head. "You're nuts."

"And you're not? First time I met you you told me you locked me in a closet. This isn't the first time we're facing monsters and it's not going to be the last. So take a deep breath and focus. You've got a magic toolbelt and I've got a three-foot sword. We're winning this fight, Valdez."

Whether it was her words that spurred him into action or something inside himself, Leo nodded and slipped his backpack off his shoulders, quietly unzipping it.

"Can I take her gag off now?" one cyclops asked, stepping toward Piper, who tried to swing her body to head-butt him in the eye. "I like it when they scream."

Elle grimaced.

He looked at the third cyclops when asking, leading Elle to believe the crouching figure to be the leader. When it grunted in confirmation, the other cyclops immediately tore the gag out of Piper's mouth.

To his obvious disappointment, she didn't scream. She took a long, deep breath, remaining calm and level-headed.

Sparing a glance to the boy at her side, Elle found Leo tinkering inside the crane's maintenance panel. He moved slowly, and Elle wondered if it was to stay quiet or to avoid mistakes.

The girl turned her attention back to Piper, who remained still under the cyclop's furious scowl.

"Scream, girl!" he demanded like a child.

"Oh Mr. Cyclops," Piper spoke reasonably, "you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go."

Elle watched Piper's charmspeak at work, grinning as the cyclops scratched his head.

"She's kinda pretty Torque," he told the second cyclops. "Maybe I should let her go."

The other one, Torque, jumped to his feet, growling. "I saw her first, Stump. I'll let her go."

"Well I tied her up! I should let her go!"

"Fools!"

The booming voice of the third cyclops caused Elle to jump. She felt Leo do the same beside her.

More surprising than the cyclops' volume was the fact that it was female. And several feet taller than the other two. She too wore chainmail that stretched from her neck to her feet like a shapeless sack.

She stalked over to the pair, shoving Stump into the conveyor belt as Torque jumped back.

"The girl is Venus spawn!" the female cyclops snarled. "She's using charmspeak on you!"

"Please, ma'am," Piper started to say with a smile. "You really should let us—"

The cyclops roared. Literally. Grabbing Piper around the waist, she practically spit in her face as she yelled, "Don't try your pretty talk on me, girl! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch?"

"Ma Gasket?" Elle snorted under her breath, unable to help herself. "How terrifying. Leo, I think we should run while we still can. Don't want Ma Gasket to catch us."

Beside her, Leo snickered and Elle smiled. Just a minute ago, he was quaking. And while the situation wasn't any better — in fact, it was worse — humor kept the pair from breaking down in fear.

Elle hadn't realized Leo was finished with... whatever it was he was doing, but he began to creep away from her, over to the next crane. Elle, unsure what to do and not wanting to split up, followed in suit.

"Can we at least eat her last, Ma?" Stump asked.

"Idiots!" Ma Gasket cried.

"If these are her sons, ugly definitely runs in their family," Leo whispered.

Elle had to stifle her laugh.

"I should've thrown you onto the streets when you were babies, like proper cyclops children. You would have learned some useful skills. You wouldn't be such imbeciles. Curse my soft heart—"

"Soft heart?" Torque muttered.

"What was that, you ingrate?"

Elle was shaking now, hand clasped tightly around her mouth to hold in her laughs. If Piper and Jason's lives weren't on the line, she knew she and Leo would be rolling around in tears of laughter at the family's argument.

"Nothing, Ma! I said you got a soft heart. We get to work for you, feed you, file your toenails—"

"And you should be grateful!" the cyclops mother bellowed. "Now, stoke the fire, Torque! And you, Stump, my case of salsa is in the other warehouse. Do you expect me to eat these demigods with salsa?"

"Yes, Ma," Stump stuttered out. "I mean, uh, no, Ma. I mean—"

"Go get it! Ma Gasket yelled, picking up a nearby truck chassis and slamming it over Stump's head. He crumpled to his knees, but was up in seconds, bounding from the room to go find the salsa.

Elle briefly wondered where they would find a case of salsa big enough for three cyclopes, then shook off the senseless thought.

Leo leaned in close, lips brushing her ear as he muttered, "Now's the time. While they're separated. I'm going to rewire the third crane. You go left, so we surround them. Try to get Jason and Piper free."

Elle nodded, and they both slipped away in silence. As she creeped along the row of cranes, she prayed the cyclopes wouldn't notice her. She kept a close eye on them, and jolted when Piper gasped.

The girl's eyes were fixed on something to the right. Leo.

"What's the matter, girl? Are you so pathetic I broke you?"

Piper's eyes snapped away immediately as she plastered on a fake wince. "I think you broke my ribs, ma'am." Without a single pause, she said, "If I'm busted up inside, I'll taste terrible."

The cyclops clutched her stomach as she laughed. "Good one, girl. The last hero we ate tried the same trick. Remember him, Torque? What was he? Son of Mercury, no?"

"Yes, Ma. A little bit stringy."

"Bah, he tasted fine," Ma Gasket waved him off.

Torque didn't seem to agree. "'Pose. Those purple shirt demigods always taste stringy. Maybe it's the Latin."

"Fool!" Ma exclaimed. "Latin's got nuttin to do with it!"

Elle went stiff. Her gaze found Jason as the gears of her mind began to work overtime. Whoever Jason was, wherever he came from, there were people out there just like him. Some other type of demigods, ones that seemed to understand Latin better than she did.

Elle had missed some part of their conversation as Piper's seemingly random comment drew back her attention.

"Oh, I've heard all about the northern cyclopes!" she exclaimed, which Elle knew immediately was total bullshit. "But I had no idea how wise you were!"

"Flattery won't work on us either," Ma Gasket snapped, though she looked rather proud of herself.

Elle tuned out the conversation and looked toward Leo. She couldn't see him, not from this far or in this light.

Just then, a loud snap echoed through the warehouse, and a spark of light appeared, illuminating Leo's shocked face. 

A truck came soaring forward and crashed directly where Leo was positioned. The boy ducked and rolled before hurriedly jumping to his feet.

"Torque, you pathetic excuse for a cyclops, get him!" Ma Gasket ordered.

With their attention turned on Leo, Elle slinked within the shadows until she was practically standing beneath Jason and Piper.

As Torque barreled closer to Leo, the boy jammed his finger down onto a small button in his hands.

The robotic arm of the first crane whirled to life. It swung, the three-ton claw slamming the cyclops in the back of the head. He flew forward, smashing his face into the concrete ground. The robotic claw grabbed him by one leg and hurled him into the ceiling.

Deciding Leo had that handled, Elle turned her back. With a nod of reassurance, Elle reached up, fingers curling around a piece of the metal crane Piper and Jason hung from. As she scaled the crane, she listened to Leo's battle.

"Ma," Stump's voice rang out. "I got the extra spicy—"

Bam!

Elle assumed Leo had sent the second crane spinning toward the cyclops. There was a thud, followed by another bang, then a savage roar from Ma Gasket.

"You busted my boys! Only I get to bust my boys!"

Whittling filled the room, and as one crane seemed to make contact, another must've been flung by Ma Gasket, as the metal skidded past the base of the crane Elle hung from.

She'd reached the top now, and Piper caught sight of her. Fortunately, she made the wise decision to pretend she hadn't, staying silent and keeping her eyes on Leo.

Unfortunately, the chains were noisy. There was no way Elle would be able to get them down from the crane without gaining Ma Gasket's attention. It would have been as obvious as tapping her on the shoulder and screaming, 'Eat me!'

"Any more tricks, demigod?" the cyclops challenged.

She was only twenty feet from him now, but Leo's attention was upward.

"Hell yeah, I got tricks!" Leo raised his remote control threateningly. "Take one more step and I'll destroy you with fire."

Elle prayed to Zeus that wasn't his plan. He had to know cyclopes were immune to fire.

Ma Gasket did, at least, for her laugh was so loud it hurt Elle's ears.

"Would you? Cyclopes are immune to fire, you idiot. But if you wish to play with flames, let me help!"

Reaching into the pit at her feet, she scooped a handful of red-hot coals from the fire and flung them directly at Leo. They landed in a pathetic pile at his feet.

"You missed," he deadpanned.

Ma Gasket didn't think so. She laughed again as she picked up a barrel next to the truck. As it flew through the air, Elle caught the word 'kerosene' before it exploded at Leo's feet.

"NO!" Piper screamed loud enough to rival Ma Gasket.

Elle's body froze in horror. "Leo!"

What had she done? Why had she climbed this stupid crane instead of staying on the ground to help Leo? She could've turned the cyclops to dust with her sword by now. Instead, she hung here like a helpless idiot while Leo burned—

Wait.

What the fuck.

The kerosene had burned off and Leo stood, unharmed.

"Leo?" Piper gasped.

"You live?" Ma Gasket looked stunned. She took an extra step forward, fingers reaching out like a child at the zoo. "What are you?"

"The Son of Hephaestus," Leo grinned. "I told you I'd destroy you with fire."

Pointing one finger in the air, a bolt of white flames shot from his finger, flashing through the air and connecting with the chain that held an engine suspended from the ceiling.

When the flames died and nothing happened, Elle's heart dropped.

"An impressive try, Son of Hephaestus," Ma Gasket chortled. "It's been many centuries since I last saw a fire user. You'll make a spicy appetizer."

Then the chain snapped and the engine block fell.

"I don't think so," Leo told her.

The cyclops didn't even have time to look up.

As the sound of the engine finished echoing through the warehouse, Leo jumped up, pumping his fist in the air.

"Not immune to engines, huh? Boo-yah!"

Elle laughed. She leaned forward, hysterical from the whirlwind of emotions the battle brought her. Tears gathered in her eyes and her stomach began to hurt as she continued to laugh through Piper's words.

"Leo! Are you alright? Can you move?"

He had fallen to the ground, face contorted, hand rubbing his head. Elle's laughter died out, worried for her friend.

"Leo?" she called.

He stumbled to his feet, and when he met her eyes, he was grinning like a madman. Elle found herself grinning back.

It took forever to get Piper and Jason untied. With Leo's help, he was able to have the crane drop them gently on the ground, but they were wrapped tightly in the chains, the metal winding around their bodies several times.

As Elle pulled the final chain away from Jason's body, he groaned. His eyes fluttered open and Elle was able to catch a brief flash of blue before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

"We need to find my backpack," she said, turning to head toward Piper and Leo, who were hugging.

They pulled away and Piper nodded.

"The cyclopes took it. It's right over he..."

Her voice died out as her gaze caught on the golden powder of the monsters. It was swirling along the floor, piling on top of itself as it began to take shape. A leg. Then an arm.

"They're forming again," Elle breathed in disbelief. "That's not supposed to happen. They're supposed to go to Tartarus."

"Well nobody told the dust that."

Piper turned sickly pale. "Oh my god. Boreas said something about this — the Earth yielding up horrors. 'When monsters no longer stay in Tartarus, and souls no longer confined to Hades.' How long do you think we have?"

"I don't know," Leo said. "But we need to get out of here."

Elle rolled across Jason's body — a trick she didn't even know she knew — in order to wrap him around her shoulders in a fireman's carry. Her knees buckled, but she grunted, forcing herself to stand straight.

"Piper, grab my backpack. Leo's right — we need to leave."

a/n: I wanted to make a quick comment about the part where I describe Aphrodite. the things I describe Aphrodite not having in no way make a person ugly. scars and pimples and fat are not bad things, they are simply things Elle is insecure of. Aphrodite looks just like Elle, without the things she wishes she didn't have. but again, these things don't ruin a person's beauty or make them unattractive.

the other half of this chapter will be added onto here tomorrow, sorry it's not all posted at once. every time I swear to meet a deadline i never do (istg the gods are out to get me).

thanks for reading!

a/n part 2: why did I stay up until literally 5am writing this when I could've just written it in the day? I must be allergic to deadlines or smth idk

yeah so I'm too tired to edit this rn so here's the rest of chapter twelve I finished literally thirty seconds ago (I didn't even proofread -- I'll do it tomorrow).

hope you like it despite that tho! sorry if it sucks!

thanks for reading!