My dreams are perfectly normal, thank the Gods. In fact, I'm having this really nice dream and—

Holy fuck I'm skydiving without a parachute.

I open my eyes. Great. I'm plummeting to my death. Something must've happened with Festus because Leo, Piper, and Jason are falling too. I can hear them screaming. Fuck. The ground is getting closer and closer. I need to think fast. If I don't do something, I'm going to go splat. Fuck fuck fuck. Think Cordelia, think!

Wait. I got it.

I take a deep breath and start to glow. The brighter I burn, the slower I fall. The thing is, when I glow, I don't just glow. I become a being of light. Human and light rays. And light doesn't obey the laws of gravity. Hence why I'm currently floating down to the ground like Mary Poppins with her umbrella. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to help Jason, Leo, and Piper.

Something explodes below. Fuck. That must be Festus. Shit. I can't see the others. It's not like I can rise. I can only slow my descent. Gods, the others are screaming a lot.

"Where's Cordelia?" someone — Jason — yells. His voice sounds disturbingly distant. Oh fuck. What if they're on a different trajectory? Fuck. I need to stop falling. I need to burn brighter. I need to give over more to the light than I ever have before. Wait. There they are! They're below me now, zigzagging through the air, Piper and Leo clinging onto Jason while he tries to control the winds. Okay, so now I'm falling too slow. 

I just can't seem to win.

I try and follow Jason's flight path. Maybe if I can get close enough, I can take Piper or Leo. I would fall faster, but it'd be less strain on Jason. I'm not exactly falling anymore, but I'm not floating. It's more like I'm swimming? It's hard to put into words, but the important thing is, I'm moving closer and closer to my friends. 

Except I'm moving very slowly, and my eyelids are getting very, very heavy, and I'm starting to dim. Fuck. Fuck! Jason's eyes flutter shut and the three of them just drop. I try to match their speed, but there's nothing I can do. They hit the roof of the largest warehouse below us and break right through. Shit. Well, if you can't beat them, join them.

I accelerate. Just before I pass through the hole they so helpfully made in the roof, I slow down. It's hard to see, but my fading light helps some. I spot Piper on the metal catwalk that rings the warehouse interior and land by her. As soon as I land, I realize her foot is fucked.

"Cordelia?" she whimpers.

"I'm here, I got you," I say as soothingly as I can manage. The last thing Piper needs right now is me freaking out just as much as her. I slide my backpack off and start digging through it for my canteen of nectar, but I know I'll have to set her foot before I can give her more than a little sip.

Jason's voice echoes from below. "Piper! Where's Piper?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groans. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Piper, where'd you go?" They must've landed at ground level. Shit. They're going to need patching up too.

Piper is struggling to remain conscious, so I answer for her. "We're up here!"

"Cordelia?" Jason calls back. "I thought—We thought—"

"Just get up here!" I order. "I'm gonna need help with Piper." I pull her broken foot up onto my lap. I can hear Jason and Leo hurtling up the steps toward us. Fuck. I don't know how to do this. I'm not a medic. Piper lets out a pained groan.

As soon as Jason and Leo reach us, Jason turns to Leo. "You got any first aid supplies?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure." He digs around in his tool belt. He pulls out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape, even though the pockets of the tool belt are way too small to fit that. It must be magic.

"How did you—" Piper tries to sit up with a wince. I set my backpack behind her so she has something to prop her up. "How did you pull that stuff from an empty belt?"

"Magic," Leo says simply. "Haven't figured it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff." He reaches back and pulls out a small tin. "Breath mints, anyone?"

"That's great, Leo," Jason snaps, snatching the tin out of Leo's hand. "Now can you fix her foot?"

I roll my eyes. "Both of you shut up. Leo, can you give me some light?" He pulls out a flashlight and turns it on so I can see better. I smile at Piper. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to give you a sip of nectar to take the edge off. Then, we're gonna set your foot. Once your foot is set, you can have a little bit more nectar."

"Shouldn't we give her all of the nectar before we set her foot?" Leo asks.

"No. If we give her the rest after her foot is set, it'll help more with the healing," I reply. I pour Piper a sip of nectar into the top of the canteen. She takes it gratefully and downs it without a second thought. Instantly, her face relaxes.

"More," she begs.

I shake my head. "Not yet, Pipes. We need to set your foot."

"Have you ever done that before?" Piper questions, her voice pitching as her nerves rise.

Something clicks in my brain. "No, but Jason has." We all look at him. He nods. Leo grabs an old piece of wood for the splint. He breaks it in half. Jason takes my place and I sit down by Piper.

"Here, hold my hand," I offer. "This is going to hurt really badly, so just squeeze my hand, alright?" Piper nods and grabs my hand.

Jason is advising Leo. "Hold her leg still. Alright. Piper, this is going to hurt." He sets her foot. Piper screams, crushing my hand in hers. I clench my jaw. It hurts like Hades, but I've been hurt worse. Eventually, her grip relaxes and my hand is free. I take a quick sip of nectar.

"Ow," Piper moans. I shake my hand out, then pass her the canteen. I make sure she only drinks a little before I snatch the canteen away.

"Great job, Jay," I say, sparing Jason a grin.

He smiles back as he digs through Piper's pack for some water. "You too, Dee-Dee." And then we both do a double-take. Jay? Dee-Dee? But only Thalia calls me Dee-Dee. Now that I'm thinking about it, did Thalia start calling me Dee-Dee on her own, or did I suggest it? Maybe my subconscious connected the dots. Thalia and Jason Grace, brother and sister. Maybe I suggested Dee-Dee to Thalia because a part of me, buried deep, remembered Jason.

Leo pouts. "Wait. How come Jason gets to call you Dee-Dee?"

I'm at a loss for words, but I still manage to spit back, "Because he's better looking than you." Jason's face turns bright red. Leo clamps his hands over his heart like he's been fatally wounded.

"What happened to the dragon?" Piper cuts in. "Where are we?"

Leo's face falls. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall." An invisible wall? Sounds like divine interference. "As for where we are...Closed car plant. I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit." I examine the logo buried underneath layers of graffiti. It seems to be a giant red eye with the words monocle motors, assembly plant 1.

Monocle? I don't like the sound of that. Even worse, the last of my adrenaline has left my body. My eyelids suddenly weigh a thousand pounds and my vision starts to darken. My body feels unusually heavy like my bones have turned to lead.

I take a deep breath. "Hey guys, I think I'm about to pass—"

I don't get to finish my sentence because well, I pass out.

*

When I come to, all I see is the sky above me. Beneath is warm metal, rumbling gently. Festus? But we crashed, didn't we? I try to sit up, but even just the idea of moving sends a wave of agony through my body. I groan.

"Oh thank the Gods," Piper sighs somewhere close by. "We were starting to think you weren't going to wake up." She leans over me and trickles a bit of nectar into my mouth. Seconds later, I feel brand-new. I sit up successfully. We're back on Festus. Leo is in the front seat again, then Jason, then Piper, then me.

Speaking of Jason, he looks like shit. He seems to have just woken up too. He rubs his head. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"

"It's okay," Leo cuts in. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling? Both of you?"

"I'm never using my powers ever again," I say. "Seriously guys. I'm done. I'm retiring. Just drop me off somewhere nice." Leo and Piper chuckle, but Jason is too out of it to appreciate my brilliant sense of humor.

He stammers, "How did you—the Cyclopes—"

"Cyclopes?" I shriek. I smack my forehead. "Oh my Gods. Monocle Motors. Fuck, I should've known."

"It's fine, Cordy," Piper assures me. It's the first time she's called me that. She smiles at me. "Leo was amazing. He ripped them apart. He can summon fire—"

Leo interjects, "Yeah, Yorkie knows. I told her back at Boreas's palace. But seriously, it was nothing."

Piper throws her head back and laughs. "Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell them. Get over it." Then she launches into the story. She tells us about how Leo defeated the family of Cyclopes all by himself, how they had freed me and Jason, how they'd noticed the family reforming, and gotten the hell out of dodge on a newly-repaired Festus. I notice she talks with her hands and her gestures get bigger and bigger as she gets more excited.

She pauses to take a breath and I jump in with a question. "Reforming?"

Piper nods, looking grim. "Boreas warned us. Monsters aren't staying in Tartarus. They're coming right back."

"What?" I whine. "That's not fucking fair. Ugh, being a demigod sucks." Piper continues the tale, explaining how the Cyclopes family had mentioned a "son of Mercury" in a purple shirt who spoke Latin.

"I'm not alone then," Jason concludes. "There are others like me."

Piper scoffs. "Jason. You were never alone. You've got us."

Jason shakes his head. "I—I know...but something Hera said. I was having a dream..." He shares his dream about Hera, about the cage, and the exchange she talked about. Wait. My eyes widen and I feel the blood leave my face. Suddenly, I can't breathe. It's as if someone dumped a ton of bricks on top of my chest. My breathing grows ragged and my head swims.

"An exchange?" Piper asks. "What does that mean?" No one's looking at me, so no one notices my panic attack. That's fine. I think I prefer that way. I try to steady my breathing. Two in, two out. Two in, two out.

Jason says, "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 chimes in. "That bit about the sleeping enemy—that sounds like the lady Leo told us about." Oh Gods. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't fight in another war. I can't watch the people I love die again. I can't do it.

My mind is whirring. I just barely register Leo's story about the face in the Porta-Potty sludge. I close my eyes, but memories of the war are painted on the back of my eyelids. The life leaving people's eyes, the screams, the blood. I'm lying on a couch, getting my stab wound treated by someone in the Apollo cabin. I turn my head and there lies Erin. She's trying to hang on. I take her hand and whimper for her to stay with me. She squeezes my hand until she doesn't anymore. I'm sobbing, begging her to come back to me.

"Dee-Dee?"

I open my eyes. We've nearly reached Chicago. My friends are looking at me, clearly concerned. Tears are running down my cheeks and I still can't breathe. My scar, a remnant of the time I got stabbed by an opposing demigod's spear, aches like it's fresh.

"I'm sorry." I bury my face in my hands and try to pull myself together. "I'm sorry, it's just...We just fought the Titans what, four months ago? And now another war that's 10 times as bad is brewing and it's not fucking fair. It's just not fair."

"You don't have to apologize, Cordy," Piper says softly.

I shake my head desperately. "But I do! I invited myself on this quest with the idea that I was experienced, you know? I could help you guys. But what the fuck have I done to help? I did Leo's laundry and that's about it. I couldn't help you guys when you were falling, I couldn't help when a family of Cyclopes was trying to eat us. I mean, why am I here?"

I should stop there, but I don't. "I mean, why did I get to live, you know? So many people died. They sacrificed themselves to keep the world spinning and they were all far better people than me, so why the fuck am I here and they're dead?" I'm shaking my head again. The rest of my body is quaking too. "I'm useless. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be here."

I can't bring myself to look at them. I hear shuffling, and then Jason is cupping my cheeks, wiping away my tears with his thumbs, and staring deep into my eyes. "You are not useless. You're fucking brilliant, Dee-Dee. And if you think you haven't brought enough to the table, which you have, this quest is far from over. You've got plenty of time."

My eyes widen. "We've done this before, haven't we? You holding me while I cry." I sniffle. "And the broken foot you set, that was mine, wasn't it?" Jason's eyes are getting glassy. Neither of us knows what to say, so I just throw my arms around him and bury my face in his chest as best as I can while strapped into Festus.

Jason looks down at the skyline below us over my shoulder. "Chicago."

"One problem down," Leo says. "We got here alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?"

Jason's silent for a moment then points at something in the distance. "How about we follow that one and see where it goes?"

I release him from my hug. I manage a chuckle. "If you're staying in that seat, you better strap in. Wouldn't you want to fall off." He rolls his eyes playfully and straps in properly to the seat. Piper passes me a bottle of water. I down it. The rapid winds quickly dry my remaining tears.

I rub my face. Alright, kid. It's time to get back up.

*

cordy's ptsd rears its ugly head in this one

don't forget to stream folklore <3