Amber awoke to a splitting headache and a flaring pain in her wrist. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up straight, memories immediately filling her mind. The first coherent thought she had was Regressus, making her glasses reappear on her face. She grabbed a throwing knife, ready to hurl it at a Cyclops, then realized she was sitting on Festus. She blinked for a moment, trying to get her bearings.

She was on Festus, as aforementioned, sitting in front of Jason and behind Piper and Leo. They were in the middle of the sky.

Emerald? she called.

Right here, she replied.

"Good, you're up!" Leo exclaimed. 

"What happened?" she asked. Piper explained everything to her. Apparently, Leo had rigged a metal claw to attack the Cyclopes, but they found him before he was done. So Emerald caused a distraction by biting one and managing to not get captured until he finished. Then he crushed two of the Cyclopes with the claw and burned the chains--with some crazy fire powers that for some reason her glasses didn't tell her about, although Hermes did say what they'd show her would vary from person to person--that were holding a car engine, causing the engine to crash down on the third. Then they told her about the Cyclopes being able to reform without going down to the Underworld, something that unnerved Amber greatly.

"Cyclops!" Jason suddenly said, making Amber jump and almost impale him with Verja, something she immediately regretted as her wrist started to hurt even more. She put it away wuickly, murmuring, "Sorry."

"D-Detroit," he stammered. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought--"

"It's okay," Leo said. "We got away, but you both got nasty concussions. How you feeling?"

You need ambrosia, Emerald realized.

I'm fine--

Nope. Don't 'I'm fine' me. Grab some abrosia and put it in you rmouth right now, Ms. Castellan.

Jason needs a bit first, Amber reasoned.

Stop being so godsdamn selfless!

Not really selfless, as I've already explained, Amber thought. More sacrificial. I'm definitely not selfless, anyways. I just...sacrificed my ambrosia share to him, y'know? Being selfless is like there are two chairs that are the exact same, but someone wants mine, so I'd switch. Being sacrificial is more like, if my chair is better, I'd give them it, as I've told you before. Not much a difference, but there is one.

Your stupid fatal flaw. Being sacrificial. So annoying and hard to take care of you with it, Emerald grumbled. Wait, they've been talking. What were they saying?

"It was nothing," Leo said.

Piper laughed. "Shut up, Valdez. I'm gonna tell him. Get over it."

And she did. She told him about everything while Amber gave him ambrosia and made sure the concussion didn't affect his brain.

Jason looked impressed, but also sort of guilty. Amber knew that feeling very well. She should've been conscious and helped!

I shouldn't have been knocked out, she berated herself. I should've been faster. What sort of daughter of Hermes am I?

Amber, I love you, but shut up, Emerald said. You can't always help. Sometimes you gotta watch from the sidelines. Trust me, I know.

By the way, that was sorta awesome, how you distracted the Cyclopes, Amber thought, mostly to change the subject, but also because it needed to be said.

I know, Emerald hissed.

When Piper told them about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, a son of Mercury in a purple shirt who spoke Latin, Amber furrowed her eyebrows. even though she'd been absent recently, she was pretty sure she would've known if one of her siblings knew fluent           Latin--something most demigods who thought they were mortals didn't know--and went missing.

Once again, something Roman that circles around Jason, she thought.

Maybe it's a demigod cult, Emerald suggested. They say they're Roman and chant prophecies in Latin around fires. Maybe Chiron knows about it, and was just too ashamed he went wrong with training the founder to say anything about them.

That honestly seems like the most believable theory we have right now, Amber admitted. And Nico just came across them at some point while travelling.

Yeah, Emerald agreed.

"I'm not alone, then," he said. "There are others like me."

"Jason," Amber said, "you were never alone." It wasn't technically true, but whatever.

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "You've got us."

This is starting to sound like a cheesy movie, Emerald hissed, crawling out of Amber's bag and draping herself around her shoulders.

It really is, Amber realized.

"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: An exchange. Enemies. Divisions. Jason being a peace offering.

"Thalia will help? I haven't seen her in months," Amber murmured. "Also...the exchange. You and Percy, most likely. And anyone who is powerful enough to trap the queen of the heavens in a cage and render her powerless is someone we should be careful of."

"Hera's gamble is me," Jason said. "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, while Amber thought of all the ancient rules the gods had. None of them seemed too similar to Jason's situation. "That bit about the sleeping enemy--that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

I really hope that lady isn't who I'm thinking of, Amber thought. That would be...well, to put it simply, really bad.

Understatement of the millenia. Emerald's forked tongue flicked out of her mouth for a second. The entire world...well, the world is her.

'To storm or fire the world will fall,' Amber thought. Please let that be a coincidence.

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

Jason looked like he wasn't sure he 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 can't 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 definitely Ga--

Don't say her name! Amber warned. There's a small chance it isn't her, but if you say it, that chance will get even smaller.

Stop being superstitious, Emerald whined.

It's basic rules to the immortal world, actually.

"She's trying to divide us," Amber said. She looked over at Piper, who seemed tense. "What's wrong?"

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

When did Enceladus get into this? Emerald wondered.

The giant born to oppose Athena, Amber thought. Really hope we don't come across him.

"Enceladus?" Jason asked.

"I mean.." Piper's voice quavered. She was definitely hiding something. Then again, Amber also was hiding a few things from them. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."

"He's the giant made to go against Athena." Amber shuddered slightly. "The most clever out of all his siblings. Each one of them was born to oppose a different god."

Leo scratched his head. "Well, I don't know about enchiladas--"

"Enceladus," Amber and Piper corrected.

"Whatever. But old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise fear, or something?"

"Porphyrion?" Piper asked. "He was the giant king, I think."

"Mhm." Amber nodded. "Born to oppose Zeus."

"I'm gonna take a wild guess," Jason said. "In the old stories, Porphyrion kidnapped Hera. That was the first shot in the war between the giants and the gods."

Ooh, he's smart, too, Emerald hissed. Amber internally rolled her eyes.

"Yeah," Amber said. "Annabeth and I could never really figure out what exactly happened, even after asking Chiron. Those myths are very conflicted. I don't think the gods wanted that story to survive. There was for sure a war between the gods and the giants, and the giants were almost impossible to kill."

"Heroes and gods had to work together," Jason said. "That's what Hera told me."

"Kind of hard to do," Leo grumbled, "if the gods won't even talk to us."

"Welcome to my life," Amber deadpanned.

They flew west in silence, Amber having a few arguments with Emerald about who the best Descendants character was. It was Evie, of course. She was actually Amber's first girl crush. But for some reason Emerald thought it was Harry Hook.

No, Emerald! He's just a wannabe vampire--oh, hey, we're there.

Yay! Wait, you never took your ambrosia! TAKE IT RIGHT NOW, YOUNG LADY!

Chill.

"Chicago," Jason said. Amber surprised herself by turning around and giving him a reassuring smile.

"We've got this." She tried to believe what she said. 

Hm. The worst mortal enemy here? Let's see who they are, Emerald hissed.

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

Amber saw a flash of movement below them. Her glasses scanned it and reported that it was a storm spirit.

"How about we follow that one," Jason suggested, "and see where it goes?"

Don't really like this. Also unedited cuz lazy. But hey I finally updated.