Chapter Text
Reyna’s POV
When Reyna was debating about staying with the Amazons, or heading to Camp Jupiter, Hylla had told her that she could choose many paths in life, but the fates had one path sewn out for her, and when she was on it, she’d know it.
The Fates always seemed to have it out for Reyna, so as comforting as her sister was trying to be, the advice was so ironic it was kind of sad, considering how many prophecies had led her on death defying quests.
Being preator of New Rome was stressful and a lot of weight on her shoulders, but she didn’t regret any of it. She loved her people and her friends too. Being a leader was something she was naturally good at, and she felt a belonging in guiding the legion and New Rome into its future. It was a good home. At least, she figured it was. Being at home was a feeling Jason had constantly attempted to describe to her, but she never quite grasped it.
But she made a new choice recently, chose a new path to follow. She was a hunter now. Her best friend was gone, and he was never coming back. She couldn’t stay in New Rome where everything reminded her of him, where every place along those streets had a memory she shared with him. So why not have a change of scenery? She figured it would be good for her.
“Reyna!” Thalia startled her out of her stupor. “You’re about to walk into a tree if you don’t pay attention.”
Reyna smiled at her friend. She had gotten much closer to Thalia Grace these past few months. It was nice to get to know her better in person after they had been pen pals. It was also nice to have someone to grieve Jason with. They’d sit together in her tent and swap stories of him, keeping his memory alive.
“Sorry Thalia, just thinking.” Reyna shrugged.
“Thinking?” Thalia smirked. “We are about to trap one of the trickiest monsters out there. Who needs thinking?” She said, her voice full of sarcasm.
“Your plan will work, Thals, I’m sure of it.” Reyna playfully punched her friend's shoulder. “Besides, we’re immortal, so we can just try again tomorrow if it doesn't work.”
“What’s brought on such a positive attitude?” Thalia shouldered her quiver. “We’ve been hunting this thing since we recruited you, I figured you’d be tired of it.”
“You can’t kill a monster like the Teumessian Fox overnight, Thalia. I know that.”
“Lieutenant!” One of the other huntresses ran up to them. “The wolves have caught its scent! It’s coming from the northeast.”
“Everyone take their positions!” Thalia ordered.
Their attempts of attack on the T-fox had never worked, so Thalia had planned to trap the fox instead this time around. Reyna approved of the strategy, putting in her own ideas to take it by surprise. While the wolves herded it into a clearing of trees, the girls would drop a giant celestial bronze net on it from above, while the rest stood behind trees and bushes with their bows in case it went wrong.
Reyna stood behind a large oak, an arrow drawn and her hand clutched tightly to her bow. She still preferred daggers or a sword, but she found that when it came to hunting monsters, bows and arrows at long range with a large group tended to be a better technique most of the time.
Shrill howls indicated the wolves were close with the fox. Reyna pulled back her bowstring, ready to take aim at a moment's notice. The ground shook with each of the fox’s heavy paw steps.
When it crashed into the clearing, the wolves snapping at its giant paws, the huntresses waited for the precise moment, and then dropped the net right on top of the T-fox. The fox went ballistic, clawing at the sides and snapping at the special net. The net was only meant to hold the animal, so that they could send it back up to the constellations where it belonged. But it didn’t seem to get the memo. It grasped a corner or the net in its massive jaws, and pulled at least four huntresses out of the trees, knocking them out cold.
Reyna rushed out with her bow drawn and took aim, waiting for Thalia’s signal. The other huntresses joined her, aiming their bows at the fox. More huntresses attempted to secure the corner of the net that the fox had pulled, but it was too powerful. It thrashed and threw its head back, pulling another corner of the net, freeing its long tail.
The huntresses struggled to regain hold of the net. “Retreat girls!” Thalia ordered. “It’s too strong, we’ll need to try something else, get out of here, quick!” The fox stood on its hind legs and let out an ear piercing squeal, freeing itself completely from the net. Reyna dropped her bow and turned around to run, when it swung its massive tail right toward her.
She was flung into the air and landed hard against something. The last thing she heard was a deafening crack .
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“Reyna! Oh my Gods, Reyna! Wake up, please!”
Reyna could hear Thalia calling for her, but the ringing in her ears was so loud. An immense pain shot up her back. All she could do was lie there. She felt her body lift up, and she cried out in pain.
“I know it hurts Reyna, I’m so sorry, just try to lie still. It’s gonna be okay.” She heard Thalia say to her. Reyna felt herself losing consciousness, the pain in her back intensifying.
“Please, Reyna, try to stay awake!”
Reyna tried to force her eyes to open. But her vision blurred. Her head felt as though someone was hitting her with a hammer, and a wave of dizziness hit her.
“Stay with me Reyna, just hold on.”
Reyna held onto Thalia’s voice as she drifted into darkness.
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Piper’s POV
Piper didn't really know how to feel about her new home in Oklahoma. She and her father now lived in a semi-large house right by the lake. It was peaceful, but the calm can sometimes be a hard thing.
All Piper could ever dream about is what happened that night. She would wake up screaming, her poor father didn’t really understand or know exactly what to do, but he tried to comfort her where he could. He urged her to talk about it with him, but Piper knew that would give away too much about her being a demigod.
School was a horror that year. Being the new kid is never easy, so on top of her nightmares, her seemingly endless guilt, and homework, she had constant bullies to deal with. She was so thankful that it was now summer.
Annabeth had called her a few days ago, asking if she was going to come home to Camp Half-Blood. Come home. These were her words. Was it really still her home, after everything? Leo had called too, checking in and asking if she was coming home for the summer. Piper didn’t really know where home was anymore. She had told them that she wasn’t going to come right away, but she’d think about coming next month. She missed her friends so much, but she didn’t know what to say to them. Leo she saw right after Jason, but she hadn’t said much to him as he helped her move, just cried really. Did her friends blame her? Did they hate her? Hazel even called from Camp Jupiter, offering her a place in the legion for the summer if she wanted to come and stay there instead. Piper thought that maybe her friends felt obligated to ask, but didn’t really want to see her.
Jason had died to save her life. She was there. She could have saved him. She could have been the one that chose to save him instead. But it didn’t happen that way. How could they ever forgive her? How could they ever love her?
These thoughts were sometimes the only ones that would go through her head everyday. Sometimes she couldn’t get out of bed, wondering why she was here, and he wasn’t. The guilt she felt was overwhelming sometimes, and she’d just lay in the wildflower field on her dad's property, weaving together stems and blades of grass, just to keep her hands busy. She’d sit on the beach of the lake by their house, feeling the breeze on her face, and remembering the winds that he would make. And trying not to remember the winds that held her back from saving him.
She found a comforting hobby of reading. She would get lost in the stories of Jane Austin, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, and even Steven King. She realized that writing could be a good way to express how she was feeling, so she would sit on her hammock in her backyard that she hung on two large willow trees, and write poem after poem. She felt like Emily Dickinson, lost in her head with her writing as her voice, and her heart.
She’d found a brief solace with her school friend, Shel. Shel helped Piper figure out a lot of things about herself, and offered lots of advice. She reminded Piper of a more head-in-the-clouds Annabeth. Eventually, their friendship grew to be a little bit more, but after their first kiss, and a date or two, Piper realized that she wasn’t ready to be in a relationship again so soon. With all the things she was going through, she figured she wouldn’t make the best girlfriend (though Shel insisted that she would be a great girlfriend), and that wasn’t fair to Shel. So they stayed good friends. But then Shel’s parents decided to move to another town, and just like that, her only real friend in her new home was gone.
She thought everyday about getting a summer job, but then she’d hear her friends asking her to come home in the back of her mind, and not do it. She also found out that she was quite good at archery, and practiced everyday. She even practiced shooting while riding her horse, a black Appaloosa mare named Daisy. She was an older mare that a couple couldn’t take care of anymore, so her father took Daisy home for her, thinking that she would cheer her up. Daisy made her smile, that’s for sure. She was a silly horse, and loved to ride on the beach. Having Daisy around really did help Piper feel better, and it was much easier to get out of bed with an animal that depended on her care. She’d braid Daisy’s hair and groom her glossy coat, and she was a great listener too. Daisy especially liked it when Piper would sing to her softly while grooming her. She’s the only one Piper would sing for anymore.
“Piper?” Her father shook her awake. She must have fallen asleep on the hammock with her thoughts. “Honey, there’s some girls out front, they say they know you. They said that it’s an emergency and that they need to speak to you right away.”
Piper shot up from her spot, knocking over her poem paper and pencils. She flung herself out of the hammock and raced to the front porch. Did Annabeth need her help? Or Hazel? Maybe her sisters from cabin 10?
She slid on the gravel hurriedly, and took in the sight on her porch. A pair of worried blue eyes stared back at her, eyes she remembered all too well. It was as though she was seeing a ghost. But it wasn’t Jason, it was his sister, Thalia Grace. Jason’s sister. She hadn’t seen her since her quest with Leo and Jason, when the hunters had helped to cure her of hypothermia. Oh Gods. What was she doing here? Did she come to yell at her? Come to punch her in the face? She felt as though she might deserve it. Thalia hopped off of her porch and jogged over to her at a hurried pace. Piper held her hands in front of her in a surrender, expecting Thalia to try to hit her with a bolt of lightning, but instead, Thalia threw her arms around Piper with a relieved sigh.
“Thank the Gods you’re home.” Thalia squeezed her. “I was afraid you might have gone back to camp. Please, can you help me?”
As utterly shocked as Piper was at that moment, Thalia looked intensely worried, so Piper just nodded speechlessly. Thalia led her over to the tree line on the side of Piper’s house, and crouched behind a tree. Piper gasped.
It was Reyna. She was laying on a stretcher, and looked deathly pale. She had bandages wrapped all over her stomach and waist. Her breathing was ragged. Piper and Reyna had gotten closer at Camp Half-Blood when the giant war ended. The two had become good friends despite their pasts with Jason, and Piper had given her some advice on what her mother had told Reyna in the past. It was easy to talk with Reyna. She was calm and collected, and radiated an aura of strength whenever she walked in the room. However, despite Reyna’s ability to lend strength to others, Reyna had confessed to Piper that she had yet to gain that strength back. A wave of protectiveness surged through Piper and she crouched next to Reyna’s stretcher, brushing her dark hair out of her face.
“Oh my Gods, what happened?” Piper looked to Thalia.
“We were hunting the Teumessian Fox, and our plan didn’t work. She got hit by the fox’s tail and was thrown into a tree. She hurt her back really bad. We couldn’t take her to a hospital, too many monsters. And you were the only demigod I could think of that lived around here that could offer her shelter.” Thalia looked down shamefully, looking as though she would burst into tears. “I should have protected her better. It’s all my fault.”
“ What? Of course it’s not your fault Thalia. You can’t protect everyone, these things happen.” Piper said. Her eyes widened at her own words, and the truth behind them. “We just- we just need to try to move on. Focus on right now, and what we can control. And right now, Reyna needs a bed, and a first aid kit.”
Thalia drew in a breath. “Right.” The huntresses lifted Reyna’s stretcher and followed Piper inside.
“You can’t take her with you on your hunt?” Piper asked Thalia. “I’m more than happy to give her shelter, but last time I was hurt on a quest you guys healed me. Can’t you heal Reyna?”
“We gave her as much nectar as we could.” Thalia looked solemn. “But too much of that stuff could disintegrate you, as you know. Her back is just too injured for her to travel at all, and that’s about all we do. It hurts her to even be on the stretcher while moving her.”
“Oh my gosh, will she be okay?” Piper stopped in her tracks. “Wait a second, what is Reyna even doing with you guys? Why isn’t she at Camp Jupiter?”
“Oh right, you don’t know.” Thalia grinned. “Reyna joined the hunt.”
“She- what?”
“She became a huntress. She took the vows.”
“Oh.” Piper didn’t know what to say. Reyna didn’t seem like the type to join the hunt. Girls who joined the hunt usually had no home, or no family, or felt like they needed adventure and purpose, or maybe just found the whole being immortal thing to be appealing. Reyna seemed to have purpose at Camp Jupiter, she loved her job as preator, or at least it seemed that way. She found family in Nico, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Percy, and Leo (and she kind of hoped that she considered herself to be in that category) and reconnected with her sister, Hylla. And Reyna didn’t ever seem like the type that feared death. What had compelled Reyna to do this?
“This way,” Piper led the girls into the guest room. “Lay her down on the bed there.”
“Thanks for your help Piper.” Thalia nodded at her. “I can’t believe I let this happen.”
“Anytime.” Piper nodded back. “And you didn’t let anything happen. Trust me, blaming yourself isn’t going to get you anywhere, you’ll just be stuck.” She looked down, not able to meet Thalia’s eyes.
“You blame yourself.” Thalia stepped back. “For what happened to my brother.”
Piper shrugged. “I was there. I couldn’t save him. Why don’t you hate me?” Piper tried to hold back an onslaught of tears, but failed. “You shouldn’t be giving me hugs. Or be thanking me for anything. Jason died for me. Why don’t you hate me? Thalia, I’m so sorry. ” Piper sniffled.
Thalia leaned in and hugged her. “Piper, Jason made a choice. I can’t blame you for his choice. I’d be a hypocrite if I did.”
“What do you mean?” Piper wiped her eyes.
“I mean, do you know the story of how I turned into a pine tree? I chose to sacrifice my life so that Luke, Annabeth and Grover could get away. That was my choice . I’m sure Jason’s situation was similar to mine, but he didn’t get turned into a tree.”
“I still can’t help but blame myself. Maybe one day I can forgive myself, but today? I don’t know.”
“These types of wounds take a long time to heal.”
“What about you?” Piper said.
“Me?”
“Ya. You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened to Reyna. She’s so strong. She’s going to be okay.”
“That’s different Piper. I’m her leader, I’m responsible for her. She got hurt on my watch.” Thalia crossed her arms, frustrated.
“It was an accident.” Piper insisted. “Will she be able to return to the hunt if I can get her all healed? Will her immortality speed that up?”
“Of course she can come back!” Thalia said. “She better. She’s my best huntress, and I’ve only had her for a few months. Artemis doesn’t kick girls out just because they get hurt. If they fall in love, maybe. But not hurt, not ever, unless they choose to retire from the hunt because of their injury. We can still get hurt pretty badly in battle.”
Piper nodded. “Okay. I’ll look after her.”
“Piper, I’m not trying to drop her and all of this on you. We can leave a healer here or I could stay just until we find another place for her to-”
“No.” Piper shook her head. “You girls need to get that fox! It’s terrorizing all those people. It’s important that you do your job. I can take care of Reyna just fine. This is a good place for her to heal without other people around. A back injury will be hard to come back from, and she might not want a lot of people around while she recovers.”
“You're sure it won’t be any trouble?” Thalia frowned. “I hate to just leave her here.”
“You're not leaving her. You brought her to a place where she can take her time to heal. That’s good, Thalia. Besides, she’s my friend! We’ll keep each other company.”
“Well, okay then, if you’re sure.” Thalia relented. “Thank you again, Piper. I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
“It’s no trouble, really. Honestly, I think it’ll be good for me.” Piper smiled. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a friend around.”
Thalia smiled sadly. “You’ll tell her what happened? You’ll tell her that I’m sorry?”
“I will. But I think she’ll say that you’re stupid for apologizing.”
“Probably.” Thalia gave Piper one last hug, and led the huntresses from the room.
Piper felt lighter than she had in weeks. In months. Thalia didn’t hate her. She smiled to herself. Maybe Reyna won’t either. Maybe none of her friends blame her, after all.
With a determined stride, Piper went to get her first aid kit to begin healing her friend. Maybe in the process, she could start healing herself too.
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Reyna’s POV
The first thing Reyna registered in her brain as she started to awaken, was the pain in her back. What had happened to her? The last thing she remembered was being thrown into the air by the fox, and Thalia’s voice. She winced as she attempted to open her eyes.
“Easy,” a soft voice whispered. “You’ve had a long few days. Nice and slow.” A palm brushed her forehead, probably in an attempt to check her temperature. Reyna realized, then, that she shook with a fever. Something cold and wet touched her forehead gently, and Reyna flinched away from the cold, trembling.
“It's alright, we gotta get your fever down, okay?” A hand grasped hers and squeezed it reassuringly. “You’re safe now.” She knew that voice, it was very familiar.
Reyna swallowed her pain and tentatively lifted her eyes open, squinting at the brightness of the day outside a window.
“There she is.” A pair of kaleidoscope eyes stared down at her.
“P-Piper McLean?”