Festus wasn't working.

She heard Piper screaming, she saw Leo shooting past her, she sensed Festus far from them, spinning out of control with limp wings, fire flickering in its mouth.

"Level out!" she heard Jason yelling. "Extend your arms and legs!"

Emilia wondered if she could shadow travel them all to safety in these conditions. Maybe not; she felt her heart hammering in her chest as she thought of her dream. And besides, she'd arrive somewhere else at this exact same speed. They'd splat on the ground anyway, bones broken in a way ambrosia and nectar couldn't fix.

She tried to listen to Jason, spread-eagle as she watched him grab onto Piper, then reach for Leo. Yes, she'd heard them say Jason could fly, but seeing him struggle to slow their fall didn't bring much reassurance.

She tried to conjure shadows to break the air, but it caused a great deal of strain, as if the wind was refusing to yield. This would be such a stupid way to die and she was powerless to stop it.

"Emilia!" yelled Jason over the wind. "Reach for Leo!"

She extended herself out, trying to grab onto him as he flailed. With her arms forward, she tugged the shadows with all her might, forming a rope that brought him close enough that she could grab his wrist, though he almost immediately tried to hit her.

"Hey!" she snapped. "Leo, stop!"

"My dragon!" Leo yelled as Jason reached him, he and Piper below them as they fell in a group, still plummeting far too fast to survive. "You gotta save Festus!"

Jason grunted in effort, and Emilia could feel the wind cutting a little less each second, as if he was slowing them down, but it wasn't going to be good enough. The dragon hit the ground way before they did, an explosion sending a fireball into the sky fro behind a warehouse complex.

"Festus!" sobbed Leo.

Below them was a factory, several warehouses, somestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. Hitting any of those would be extremely painful. Emilia tried once again to conjure shadow, this time on her and Leo's shoulders, tugging all four of them upwards to help Jason as he encouraged the winds to move in the same direction.

Jason groaned in anguish, "I can't–"

They still managed to drop like stones onto the roof of the largest warehouse. The ceiling tore open, Piper screamed, Emilia tried to make the shadows cushion their fall only for her body to careen further from the others. She tumbled over to the wall on the warehouse's ground level, cushioned only by the backpack carrying all her clothes. Everything spun for a moment, muffled voices calling out to each other.

"Piper!" she heard Jason yelling. "Where's Piper?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. Emilia sat up as they tried to scramble off of each other. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Piper, where'd you go?"

"Here," came a weak voice overhead.

"There," said Emilia, arm aching as she lifted it to point at the metal catwalk overhead. She forced herself to her feet, giving her neck a good crack before she followed Jason and Leo to the stairs.

Twenty feet overhead, the hole made in the roof was a ragged starburst. On the ceiling, few electric bulbs flickered dimly, doing a poor job at lighting the enormous space they landed in. The logo was hard to make out, spray-painted over with graffiti. There were huge machines around them with robotic arms and some half-finished trucks on an assembly line. Everything had a layer of dust over it, as if it'd been abandoned for years.

Piper was in bad shape. Her foot was broken and as she watched them come up to her, she blinked and swayed like she was about to pass out. "You okay...?" asked Leo right before he saw her foot. "Oh, no, you're not."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Piper groaned.

Emilia swept her hands out, the shadows forming a barrier that Piper could lean on. She knelt beside her, removing her bag and reaching in for some ambrosia. "Here," she said, placing a tiny portion in Piper's mouth. "Chew slowly, breathe. I'll give you a few drops of nectar to wash it down, assuming the dropper didn't break... okay, well..." Emilia held up a Ziploc bag, filled with a broken vial of nectar. "At least we can administer drops like this. Hold still..." She guided Piper in tilting her head back and squeezed three drops onto her tongue, then offered her some water.

"Thanks," said Piper wearily. "Is it going to just fix itself?"

"It could," said Emilia. "But it'd take forever. We need to realign everything for it to repair itself quickly, but I don't know how to do that..."

Jason examined her foot. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"

Leo's hands trembled. "Yeah– yeah, sure." He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape.

"You just happened to pack that?" asked Emilia.

Piper was just as confused. "Wasn't that belt... empty?"

"Magic," said Leo. "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 reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. "Breath mint?"

Jason snatched away the mints. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?"

"I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car..."

"Okay," said Jason, tentatively tapping Piper's ankle. She winced, instinctively recoiling. "I think maybe I can try to set her foot."

"Have you ever done that before?" asked Piper.

"Yeah... I think so. I need a splint, though."

Leo reached for an old piece of wood on the catwalk and broke it in half. "Hold her leg still," Jason said. "And keep her from moving too much. Piper, this is going to hurt."

Leo and Emilia held onto Piper and her legs, keeping her steady. When Jason set the foot, Piper flinched and punched Leo in the arm, the two of them yelling in unison. "Breathe," Emilia continued to insist as Jason held the splint for Leo to wrap the gauze around. Once they'd secured it, they added the duct tape over to make sure it wouldn't budge.

"Once you feel no pain, we can take it off," said Emilia as Piper panted, sweat beading off her forehead. "See, good as new."

"Ow," was all Piper managed.

"Jeez, beauty queen!" said Leo, rubbing his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."

"Sorry," said Piper. "And don't call me 'beauty queen,' or I'll punch you again." She tilted her head to the hole in the roof, where snowflakes were fluttering in, the wind howling as if a storm was approaching. "What happened to the dragon? Where are we?"

Leo's expression turned sullen. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall."

Piper looked like she would be even sicker hearing this, but probably because it meant they had no ride. Emilia supposed she could try and shadow travel them to Chicago, but she'd hardly tried it herself, let alone carried along a whole group of people.

Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are..." The logo was easier to see up close, but difficult to make out through the graffiti. It seemed to have a large red eye with the stenciled words: Monocle Motors, Assembly Plant 1.

Emilai gave a gulp as Leo said, "Closed car plant. I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit."

"How far is that from Chicago?" asked Piper, unaware that Emilia looked as if she was about to throw up.

"Maybe three-fourths of the way from Quebec?" said Jason. "The thing is, without the dragon, we're stuck traveling overland."

"No way," Leo said. "It isn't safe."

"Guys," said Emilia nervously. "We need to get out of here."

"I don't know if I can walk yet," said Piper. "And four people– Jason, you can't fly that many across country by yourself–"

"It doesn't matter," said Emilia, more harshly than they expected. She didn't mean to get angry, but she was agitated just knowing where they were. "We can find Festus and I can try to shadow travel us to literally anywhere else in Detroit. But not here. Monocle Motors is owned by cyclopes. They... they made weapons during the second Titan War, the one I helped in. These cyclopes helped forge my spear. We have to go."

Everyone was quiet. "Doesn't shadow travel... hurt?" said Jason, furrowing his eyebrows as if he wasn't sure about that. "Not only you but the people you travel with? Piper's still weak."

"Then as soon as her head isn't spinning, we go. Leo, is there any chance Festus might still be operational? What happened to it? Can you fix it?"

"I don't know," said Leo, crestfallen. He pulled a few screws out of his pockets and started fiddling with them. "I'd have to find where he landed, if he's even in one piece."

"It was my fault," said Piper miserably.

"Piper," said Jason gently. "You were asleep when Festus conked out. It couldn't be your fault."

"Yeah, you're just shaken up," agreed Leo. "You're in pain. Just rest. Look, why don't you two stay with her? I'll scout around with Festus. I think he fell outside the warehouse somewhere. If I can find him, maybe I can figure out what happened and fix him."

Emilia shook her head. "No, you can't go alone! I'm telling you, if Kronos used this company, there could still be something here. Let's try to get Piper down, I can use the shadows to carry her. Anywhere we go, we go together."

"The Titans were defeated," said Jason. "Would anyone even still be running this?"

"I-I don't know, but I won't take that chance."

"Jason can stay with Piper," said Leo. "You come with me, we'll see if I can fix Festus. If it's possible but will take awhile, we come back to get Jason and Piper and try the shadow travel thing to somewhere safer. I'll repair him and we'll continue on our way to Chicago."

Emilia didn't like it, but Jason was right– Piper was still too weak. "Don't go anywhere, then," she said. "Stay here and call at the first sign of trouble. Cyclops can mimic voices so... don't believe anything you hear. If we need help, we'll shout..." She thought of a random word and rolled her eyes when one came to mind, "Hockey."

"Okay," said Jason, a bit skeptically. "Come back as fast as you can."

Leo reached into his toolbelt, pulling out a flashlight to guide them as they skipped down the stairs, rushing out of the warehouse. Emilia held her spear tight, leading the way as they looked for Festus. They found him in the factory yard, crash-landed on top of a line of Porta-Potties. Giving a grimace, Emilia kept her distance as Leo rushed over to examine him.

Heavy snow fell around them. She sent a cloud of shadows to shield Leo as he reached for the control panel, muttering to himself as she paced around, trying to check for any signs that someone was still here. So far, it didn't seem like it, but she supposed the snow could have already covered any footsteps, or maybe any cyclopes lingering around only came during certain times of the day. They could be gone for the night, or maybe about to come back.

She turned back ever so often to make sure Leo was still there. He was digging into his tool belt, working over the controls frantically. She figured he must think it possible to fix Festus right now and fly off without need for shadow travel.

She could see his mouth moving, as if he was talking to himself. He was too far for her to hear, and with the wind whistling in her ears, it made it hard to eavesdrop even if she wanted to. She was thinking about the sleeping woman, about what she said, about the choice she could make.

Was family really what she wanted most? She feared the answer was yes. Amends would be nice and all but to be loved, to feel wanted somewhere... did she only feel she had to make amends so that she might have a chance at receiving that? The answer to that was probably also yes.

Emilia could care a lot less about Hera. The Queen of the Gods had done nothing for her– or anyone for that matter. But to let her suffer, to let Olympus fall, it would be no better than what she'd done during the war. Besides, if she held the gods accountable for what they'd done, shouldn't she also criticize her own mother?

It seemed that this woman– Gaea, she decided, because who else could it be– had made Eris create Emilia. Her mother was a victim, in a sense, but so was her father. For the first time she wasn't upset as she thought of him because how awful it must have been, to have a child he didn't create left on his doorstep, right as he was about to get married. The accusations must have taken a toll on him. He could have lost everything. He still tried, at least a bit... he wanted to make a greater effort.

Maybe she couldn't fault him as much as she always had. In the end he gave her away but he'd been trying to make the best of a strange situation. Was family really so out of the question? Her brothers seemed to... want her. No one had ever wanted her like that before. Pure, with no motives.

Well, Daniel certainly didn't like being the oldest of the children, but it went beyond that. He wanted a sister to look up to, to give him advice. Maybe Emilia could still be that sister. Maybe she could get that without giving Gaea what she sought.

But what of her life? Gaea willed her to be created and as long as Emilia lived, it would be easier for the beings in Tartarus to reach into this world. Did it mean she should die? No, maybe not, after all, Gaea wanted her to step away from the prophecy, to prevent the eight from coming together.

So she was needed alive to forge this connection, but why? Because of the monsters? It wasn't like Emilia was great at making groups, she'd never gotten along with that many people at once. Gaea wanted to use this to keep them apart, which meant to her that she had to try that much harder to fix that. To play well with others.

Having a family of eight wasn't going to be enough. Not when she might already have a chance... if she dared to reach out to her aunt and to her brother. Emilia knew she had a choice here, to choose them or to choose these other demigods who she barely knew, who she might not even like.

To storm or fire the world must fall. If it came down to keeping the world alive, to giving herself the chance to know her blood relatives... well, the choice was simple. Whether she trusted them or not, she had to work with the other seven to stop chaos from unfolding. And who better to handle chaos than her?

There came a sudden crash from the factory. She realized she'd zoned out and turned to see Leo had heard it too. He bounded over as metal crumpled and groaned inside, whispering to his tool belt, "Gimme the biggest hammer you got."

He reached in and pulled out a three-pound club hammer with a double-faced head the size of a potato. He looked shaken, but she assumed he was just worried about his first battle. She remained calm, motioning for him to follow her lead. She put a finger over her lips, calling for silence.

As they approached the door, she leaned forward just enough to peer inside. Gray morning light filtered through the hole in the roof. A few lightbulbs flickered but the majority of the factory floor was still lost in shadows. The catwalk was empty. She inhaled, smelling through the oil and grime a filth, like the one carried by monsters who didn't clean themselves properly.

Somewhere on the factory floor, Piper's voice cried, "Leo, Emilia, help!"

No safe word. The cyclopes had them, Emilia was sure of it. She beckoned Leo to follow her, the two slipping inside and ducking behind the closest cargo container. With light steps, scuffles muffled by shadows, Emilia guided them around the edges behind boxes and hollow truck chassis toward the center of the warehouse.

"Leo?" called Piper's voice again, less certain but close. "Emilia?"

As they drew nearer, they could see a truck engine suspended on a chain, dangling over three dark shapes the size of forklift. Two smaller shapes dangled on a robotic arm, about as big as a human.

One of the large dark figures rose, a cyclops. "Told you it was nothing," it mumbled, voice deep and feral.

The other one called out again, "Emilia, Leo, help me! Help–" The voice became a low masculine snarl, "Bah, there's nobody out there. They're gone."

The first one chuckled. "Probably ran away, if they know what's good for them. Or the girl was lying about there being two other demigods. Let's get cooking."

Emilia watched an emergency flare blow up, starting a fire that illuminated the cyclops properly and confirmed the small figures were Jason and Piper, hung upside down like bats and tied by the ankles with cocoons of chains up to their necks. Piper was flailing around trying to free herself, gagged but otherwise alive. Jason was unconscious, with a nasty welt over his left eyebrow and eyes rolled up to the back of his head.

The good thing was that they didn't even seem to sense Emilia nearby. Maybe because they smelled other demigods nearer to them, maybe because they were together and as such not deterred by the smell of a child of the Underworld and Tartarus. Or maybe they were just as stupid as the Boreads.

As the fire over a pile of tires and wood doused in kerosene grew, the cyclopes were easier to examine. The third one was facing away from them, but the ones they could see were each ten feet tall, with hairy muscular bodies and skin that glowed red in the firelight. One wore a chainmail loincloth and the other a ragged fuzzy toga made of fiberglass insulation.

She could feel Leo terrified out of his mind beside her, in conflict with himself and unsure if he should run the other way or stay here to confront them. She wasn't sure if he'd ever been in a fight. She was sure she could take the two smaller cyclopes on alone, but the third one was larger, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to hold on long enough for Leo to free Piper and Jason– if he even could, that fast.

"Can I take her gag off now?" asked the cyclopes in chainmail, gesturing to Piper. "I like it when they scream."

The larger cyclops grunted, as if its permission was needed for this. When the gag came off, Piper didn't scream. Emilia sensed Leo kneeling behind her, rummaging through his backpack. He was trying his hardest to manipulate screws and something that looked like a remote control, but Emilia worried that one wrong move would make a too-sharp clink! that would alert the cyclopes of their position.

She motioned for Leo to stay where he was. If any noise was made, she could cause a diversion. She had to trust that Leo was doing something to help free Jason and Piper. She had to trust he'd get it done, that with their combined efforts, they'd meet their goal.

She concentrated on slinking through to the other end of the warehouse while Piper tried to charmspeak the cyclopes into releasing them. The third rose angrily, "Fools!" It was a female, and when she rose, she proved to be even bigger than Emilia anticipated. She wore a tent of chainmail cut like a sack dress, with greasy pigtails woven with copper wires and metal washers.

"The girl is Venus spawn," she snarled. "She's using charmspeak on you."

"Please, ma'am–" Piper started.

The lady cyclopes roared and grabbed Piper around the waist. "Don't try your pretty talk on me, girl! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch." Emilia had no idea who this was, but she worried that Piper would be crushed. Thankfully, Ma Gasket let her go. Her sons, apparently called Sump and Torque, became subject to a spat about their stupidity. Emilia agreed. Better they keep arguing, better they worry about– she stopped to listen and rolled her eyes– what salsa they'd eat Jason and Piper with, so at least then she and Leo could move around undetected.

She caught a glimpse of him as she rounded the corner. Just a little longer. She tried not to get distracted by the cyclopes mentioning a son of 'Mercury,' she tried not to think about him having worn a 'purple shirt' and being able to speak 'Latin.' It was too much to ponder on.

She heard a sudden zap! that made the cyclopes go freeze. In a split second, Torque picked up a truck and threw it in Leo's direction. She felt her heart drop into her stomach, thinking Leo had been crushed, but she saw him dart up and took her opportunity to rush out as he reached for the contraption he'd made.

With one hand on her spear, she lifted the other and formed a rope of shadows that yanked Torque back before he could bound toward Leo. Suddenly, one of the claws overhead slammed into him, throwing him to the floor and letting Emilia focus her attention on him while Leo worked on the control he'd made, the machines around them attacking Sump and Ma Gasket.

Torque was barely scrambling to his feet when Emilia reached him, moving her hand and spear as one, the shadows thinned into a blade that she flung at his abdomen, slicing it open and making him stagger low enough that with one leap, she drove the spear into his heart. She gripped the handle with both hands and tugged downward until he burst into dust.

She saw that Leo had already defeated Sump with one of the machines, crushing him with so many pounds of force that not even the cyclops could resist being obliterated. Her instinct was to attack Ma Gasket, to deal with it herself, but Leo seemed to be handling it more-or-less alright. He was doing his own thing, and she had to let him.

She focused instead of Piper and Jason. She sent her spear into the shadows and willed them up, forming a larger blade by swirling her hands horizontally apart, then guiding it up to slice open the chains. Before they could drop too harshly, she formed dark hands that grabbed the chains, and with a groan, used all her might to slowly drop them to the ground.

She freed Piper first, who immediately started helping her with Jason, who was too dazed to do anything. Piper looked over Emilia's shoulder, eyes widening and screaming, "NO!"

Emilia turned just as Ma Gasket threw kerosene onto Leo, red-hot coals sparking at his feet. Flames erupted all over his body, and Emilia was sure he'd died. Then, seconds later, the flames simmered back to his feet, revealing that Leo stood unharmed in the center.

Piper gasped. "Leo?"

Ma Gasket was just as astonished. "You live?" She took a step forward. "What are you?"

"The son of Hephaestus," said Leo. "And I warned you I'd destroy you with fire."

He pointed a finger in the air, a bolt of white-hot flames shooting up to the chain that suspended the truck engine. At first, nothing happened, and Ma Gasket laughed, "An impressive try, son of Hephaestus. It's been many centuries since I saw a fire user. You'll make a spicy appetizer–"

The chain snapped, the engine block crushing her into a pile of dust. "I don't think so," said Leo flatly. He smirked once he confirmed she was gone. "Not immune to engines, huh? Boo-yah..." The enthusiasm died as he staggered, falling to his knees.

Piper ran to him while Emilia sat Jason up, removing her backpack again to deliver a few drops of nectar into his mouth. The welt on his head started to shrink, the color beginning to return to his face.

"He's got a nice thick skull," said Leo tiredly. "I think he's gonna be fine."

"Thank god," Piper sighed. "Leo... how did you–? The fire–? Have you always–?"

He looked down at his feet. "Always. I'm a freaking menace. Sorry, I should've told you guys sooner, but–"

"Sorry?" Piper punched his arm, grinning. "That was amazing, Valdez! You saved our lives. What are you sorry about?"

Leo blinked, and started to smile, but pointed suddenly at the dust behind them, where Emilia had slayed Torque. The dust shifted across the floor like an invisible wind was pushing it back together. "They're forming again. Look."

"That's not possible," said Piper fearfully, pointing to where Sump's remains began to do the same. "Annabeth told me monsters dissipate when they're killed. They go back to Tartarus and can't return for a long time."

"That shouldn't be possible at all for Torque," said Emilia darkly. "My spear is made of Stygian Iron. It absorbs the essence of monsters. They shouldn't have any chance of reforming."

Piper turned pale. "Oh, god. Boreas said something about this– the earth yielding up horrors. 'When monsters no longer stay in Tartarus, and souls are no longer confined to Hades...'"

Emilia swayed. "The sleeping lady," she admitted quietly. "She came to me in a dream. She said she willed me to be born. She made me the anchor that lets monsters access this world a little easier. If... if that's true, what if my spear doesn't work because I'm wielding it? We need to leave. Right now."

No one wanted to think of that, least of all Emilia. Still, she felt an odd weight off her shoulders for having told them about it. She felt almost elated to think of their success, of Leo's ingenuity, of Piper's prowess in trying to charmspeak the cyclopes.

They... made a pretty good team.

Don't let them fool you. They'll take your essence with your own spear if you turn your back.

She ignored him and tugged Jason's limp form out of the warehouse as fast as she could, where an awakened Festus waited to carry them the rest of the way to Chicago.