AN: This skips a few events. The encounter with Lycaon hasn't happened, they already visited Aeolus, they never came across Medea, and they're in California now. This takes place from Piper's point-of-view. It starts off a dream, but I didn't italicize that section. I hope it is easy enough to realize when the dream stops because it explicitly states as much. If it is not clear, though, I apologize ahead of time.

[Long explanation; feel free to skip past]

There is more about Thalia's past in here, as seen through an outside perspective (Piper's). It was difficult to write as her; I tried to make her less (um?) dependent than she seemed to me in the Lost Hero. Not meaning to offend anyone or anything; that's just what I pulled from it. Because the endgame pairing is not Pipalia, she won't be leaning on Thalia like she (kind of) was on Jason. Also, she begins to feel more appreciation towards her mother. I really like Piper, so I hope I manage to do her some justice.

Next chapter - the rescuing of Hera.

Getting to Percy and Nico involvement soon, so look forward to that.

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HOO.

Piper VIII

Saving Grace

Piper dreamt of Thalia, and not for the first time in the past year. It was a memory—or, she guessed, a fake memory—of them before their pseudo relationship started. It was probably one of the happiest days of her short life, and not because she really, really liked Thalia. It had more to do with their friendship—how Thalia could make her stop worrying about other people, schools, or just life in general.

Those memories were all implanted by Hera anyway, so Piper supposed that they shouldn't matter much to her. But they still did matter, because they continued to console her.

Thalia was holding her hand for the first time, and it was extremely, extremely awkward for Piper. Thalia acted like a romantic natural, flirting around and bravely grasping her by the hand, pinching her nose, twirling her hair.

They were lounging on the dorm roof of the Wilderness School. Thalia was talking about how she and Leo dropped an egg from the roof the day before, causing it to crack and splatter in Isabel's hair. Piper was laughing louder than she could remember ever laughing, satisfied that Thalia had gotten Isabel back for mocking her heritage again.

"Oh, so you think that's funny, huh?" Thalia said, trying not to laugh along. "Leo and me thought so, too, until Isabel proceeded to bitch us out for three hours straight. 'Ugh! You messed up my springy curls, you dicks! That took, like, for-fucking-ever to do, ugh!'"

Piper cracked a smile. "That's Isabel for you. But she's right. She probably spends hours doing her hair."

The dream faded just as Thalia was about to mock Isabel again. Piper wasn't sure what was going on. She was back in the place that Aeolus, the god who seemingly had a problem that involved tousling Thalia's hair, lived in although it was empty. The God of the Winds was nowhere in sight.

It wasn't long before she heard a woman's voice. At first, her mind told her that it had to be Mellie, the harpy that had shown them to Aeolus, but she realized she was wrong whenever she turned around.

"I absolutely hate what he's done to the place," said Aphrodite, smirking and waving her hand dismissively. "No sense of style, as far as I can see."

Piper should've expected that her mother would be that beautiful, but it was still somewhat surprising. Aphrodite's features and body shape morphed subtly, forming closer and closer to Piper's perception of beauty. She had seen many beautiful women before, including Thalia, but Aphrodite really took the cake.

And she wasn't even wearing any makeup. She wasn't wearing designer clothes. She was just…normal. Simple yet expressive, like Piper. She was nothing like Piper had expected. She had thought her mother would be anything from a self-absorbed superstar to a "hip" soccer mom, living vicariously through her children.

"How—?"

"You're only dreaming, my sweet," Aphrodite assured with a pretty smile. Hades, everything about her was pretty. Piper didn't know if she should feel proud or envious. "If anyone wonders, I wasn't here. Okay?"

Piper numbly nodded, searching for anything to say. Before she could stop herself, words tumbled from her lips. "You're not like Drew."

Aphrodite paused, her mouth slightly open as she pondered over how to reply. "All of my children are unique. Beautiful in their own way."

"I—"

"There is more than one kind of beauty, my sweet, and I'm the goddess over all of them." Aphrodite clucked her tongue as she ran her finger across Aeolus' stairwell. "He really overdoes the marble, doesn't he?"

"Why—why bring me here? I don't understand why you would—"

"Yes," Aphrodite said, nodding slowly. She seemed reluctant. "This is your freshest memory, so it was easier to form a dream around it. I know you might have been…disappointed to leave your previous dream."

Piper flushed. "I was," she admitted. She wasn't quite sure why she was embarrassed. "It was a nice dream. But not real. How—how come it feels so real?"

Aphrodite's expressionless look faded and she smiled. "Because you are my daughter, Piper. You see possibilities much more vividly than others. You see what could be."

"Could be? You mean, me and Thalia—"

She had that weird expression again. "Um, maybe. Or you could find someone, sooner than you think. But that's for another time. You have other trials to face first. The Doors of Death have opened."

"What do you mean?"

"You're smart, Piper," Aphrodite encouraged, winking. "You know."

Piper knew it shouldn't have been possible but the hair on her arms rose. A chill ran up her spine. "Someone opened a new entrance from the Underworld. It's letting the dead escape back into the world."

"And not just any dead. The worst, the most powerful, the ones most likely to hate the gods."

"Monsters, you mean," Piper said. "That's why they aren't staying gone."

"Oh, not just monsters, dear. People. King Midas, Medea, people from your Greek mythology research."

Piper tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, internally pleased that her mother actually seemed to know something about her.

She kind of hated that she was acting so nervous and star-struck. This was her mother—the same woman who had walked out on her dad. Piper had no reason to feel honored.

"Oh, you don't have to make me feel so bad, do you?" Aphrodite asked, a frown marring her pretty face. "It's not like I wanted to do it! Tristan was truly an amazing man. So gentle and kind, funny and handsome."

"You—you can hear my thoughts?"

Aphrodite clucked her tongue coyly, like she was trying to hide some sort of secret. "It was all over your face, darling."

"But—"

"It's always hard to leave someone you love. Someone you care for. I suppose it was for the best. If he had realized who I really was—what I really was, it would have ruined him. Some mortals have trouble accepting it. Ask your friend Thalia—poor child. Her mother was practically destroyed when she found out that she'd fallen in love with Zeus. My name be damned if she didn't have a wicked sense of fashion, though. Woman could pull off just about anything."

Piper wanted to say something along the lines of 'Well, you can pull of anything!' but her mind was stuck on one thing. "Thalia's mom? Thalia has a mom?"

"Had, my sweet," Aphrodite corrected, pulling a sympathetic face. "As most mortals do, she passed on. But it is not my place to gossip. Thalia will choose to tell you what she will."

"If she remembers," Piper muttered under her breath.

Aphrodite heard. She slipped something out of the pocket of her jeans. It was a glowing glass vial, filled to the brim with a milky blue substance.

"Ah, yes, that reminds me," she simply said. She handed the vial to Piper. "As I do with everyone, I am presenting you with a choice. I'm no Janus, but I'm not going to force you to do anything either."

"What—what is this?" Piper asked, holding the vial cautiously away from herself.

"All in good time, darling. All in good time. There is something you should know. About Thalia, about her life before this."

That caught Piper's attention. Her eyes focused on her nervous mother, watching the way she twirled a ringlet of her color-shifting hair.

"Thalia," Aphrodite started cautiously, "is in love. She's been in love, for quite a long time."

Piper nearly dropped the vial. Her mind reeled. "What? With who? With—with—?"

"No," the goddess admitted reluctantly, visibly wincing at the sight of her daughter's despair. "Not with you, my dear. I'm sorry."

Piper sucked her lip into her mouth, biting down on it softly once, before she spoke. "It's—it's fine. I kind of expected that, I guess. She's been getting distant lately—like she has remembered something. I suppose I know what she remembered now."

"Her name is Reyna," Aphrodite continued, watching her face very closely. "They're not officially together but they are very much in love."

Piper was a lot more resigned than she thought she would be. She supposed she had suspected it from the very beginning, when Thalia had gently shrugged away one of her hugs. Who was Piper to get in the way of something like that? Thalia had someone, and Piper could respect that. Piper would respect that.

Besides, it wasn't like Piper to fight over someone else's attentions. She was her own person. She didn't need to be with anyone.

Aphrodite looked surprised but noticeably pleased as she watched her daughter's reactions. "The potion will turn Thalia's affections…towards you. You will be her Reyna, her heart, and her soul. She will not be able to help but love you unconditionally."

"No!" Piper blurted out before she could help herself. "Sorry, I just—I just don't want that."

Aphrodite fought back a small smile, pleased at her daughter's initial decision. "You might change your mind, my dear."

"I won't," Piper stated firmly. "I promise."

"I am still giving you the option," Aphrodite said. "Keep the vial. Hold onto it. You have up until Thalia sees Reyna again to make up your mind."

"I don't—I don't want to destroy anything. I don't need anyone that desperately. I don't need anyone."

"Love is the strongest motivator," Aphrodite asserted. "But you are smart not to want that for the girl you care for. And I have so many more plans for them. Trust me, my sweet. The one for you has yet to come into your life. Show patience, and everything will fall into place."

"What about the threat to Olympus?" Piper asked urgently. "Enough about love. What about the giants?"

Aphrodite smiled understandingly. "You're very clever. You know who is rising. You know the being powerful enough to cause such an uprising."

Did she?

"Gaea," Piper said when the name came to her. "Mother Earth?"

"Do not underestimate her," Aphrodite warned. "She is a cruel deity. She orchestrated the death of her husband, Ouranos. She gave the sickle to Kronos and urged him to kill his own father. While the Titans ruled, she slumbered in peace. But when the gods overthrew them, Gaea woke again in all her anger and gave birth to a new race—the giants—to destroy Olympus once and for all."

"And the giants are rising again," Piper realized. "Gaea is awake again, and she is bringing the giants back."

Aphrodite snapped her fingers. "No, no. See, that's the glorious part. Gaea is not yet awake, which means she can still be stopped before she actually starts. The giants, they are rising, yes. But not all of them. Stop Porphyrion from drawing power from Hera and taking the place of Zeus."

"Me? What am I supposed to do? Throw on a pretty dress and beg him to go back to sleep?"

"I wish it were that simple," Aphrodite said. "But no, you will have to find your own strengths, and fight for what you love. Like my favored ones, Helen and Paris. Like my son Aeneas."

"Helen and Paris died," Piper unthinkingly disputed.

"And Aeneas became a hero," Aphrodite added. "The first great hero of Rome. You're traveling with the second."

Somehow, Piper knew without asking that her mother wasn't talking about Leo.

"Thalia? I don't understand—"

"The result will depend on you," the goddess added. "Thalia will need you. The Greeks need you. The Romans will need you. When the two sides meet, you will be the mediator. You will determine whether there is friendship or bloodshed. You play the biggest part in the reunion. And if the sides fail to reconcile—if you aren't there to assist—nothing will stop the giants from rising and lifting Gaea back to her former glory."

"What two sides? What are you talking about?"

Piper's sight blurred. She could only see flashes of color in place of Aphrodite.

"You must wake soon, my child," Aphrodite said. "I do not always agree with Hera, but she has taken a bold risk, and I agree it must be done. Zeus has kept the two sides apart for too long. Only together will you have to power to maintain peace. Now, wake, and I hope you like the clothes I picked out."

"What clothes?' Piper managed to call out just before she was tossed from her dream, and back into the world of the conscious.

Her back was comfortably lounging against the back of a café chair, and her hands were relaxed on top of a glass surface. Where was she?

A quick glance around confirmed that she and her two friends were outside of a sidewalk café, sitting at one of the few tables that rested out front.

Thalia was the only noticeably alert one, looking at Piper from across the table and drumming her fingers rhythmically on the glass.

For a brief moment, Piper thought of what she and her mother had discussed. She will not be able to help but love you unconditionally, Aphrodite had said. Did Piper want that?

The answer was no. She really, really didn't. She would rather have no love at all than fake love.

Still, though, just to be safe…she'd keep the vial around. Aphrodite surely had some other reason for giving it to her. Piper thought back to the heroes that she had learned about in mythology. Maybe her will was being tested by the gods, like the wills of so many other demigods.

Leo yawned loudly, stretching his arms over his head. "Where are we?"

"California," Thalia responded without missing a beat. "I remember it."

Piper wanted to loudly inquire what else she remembered, but she managed to refrain.

She thought of the girl Aphrodite said that Thalia was in love with. Reyna.

Piper wasn't sure how to feel. She didn't really think she was jealous. Naturally, she was slightly upset; she remembered the entirety of their fake relationship. Even though it shouldn't have been, it was hard to just forget about all of that.

But still. She wouldn't use the vial. She would never use that vial.

Thalia deserved true love. Piper deserved true love. And Reyna, whoever she was, certainly deserved true love.

She didn't want to think about that anymore. What were her friends saying?

Thalia glanced down for the first time, noticing her change of outfit. "What in the world…?"

In place of her battered boots, she wore a brand new pair of combat boots, laced firmly and polished. She was wearing a black shirt that had heads on it and read: Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Piper recognized it from the cover of one of Thalia's (possibly made up) albums. Aphrodite had also given her a pair of ripped black jeans and her old leather jacket.

The daughter of Jupiter looked good—though less like the Thalia that Piper remembered. In a way, it was sort of comforting. Maybe it wasn't so devastating that she had fake memories of her. They could form new ones. She could come to know the real Thalia, the daughter of Jupiter.

How close was the Thalia she had thought she knew to the actual Thalia?

Thalia arched an eyebrow at Leo. "How come you're all dressed up and I'm not?"

Adjusting his fedora, Leo shrugged. "No clue. I'm rocking these suspenders, though. And Piper, can you say knockout?"

Worriedly, Piper looked down at herself. She released a sigh of relief when she saw that nothing look out of the ordinary. Aphrodite had given her a pair of jeans and a blue plaid shirt, and she had also given her back her boots that had been discarded by her siblings. Her old snowboarding jacket was stuffy in the hot weather but it was comforting just to be wearing it.

Piper was starting to think her mother wasn't all that bad.

Thankfully, Hedge wasn't with them anymore. He had left to go to Camp Half-Blood, to update Chiron.

"Who did this?" Thalia asked, confused, playing with the strands of her gelled hair. "Ew. Feels gross."

"You kind of look like Clark Kent," Leo pointed out.

"Who?"

"Superman," Piper supplied helpfully.

Who had never heard of Superman? Had Thalia grown up without any entertainment?

"Ugh," Thalia complained, ruffling her hair as best as she could. She ended up making it worse, and so Piper leaned forward to fix it. "Thanks."

"So who did do this?" Leo asked, looking to Piper. "It was your mom, wasn't it?"

"How did you know?"

"Just a guess," Leo supplied, pointing to his get-up in amusement. "Aphrodite strikes again, huh?"

"She didn't change me at all. She didn't put me in a dress or anything horrible like that," Piper noted aloud.

"Well, duh, Beauty Queen," Thalia said impulsively. "You're already beautiful the way you are."

Shit. Piper couldn't help it. Her cheeks flushed. Thalia seemed to realize that the remark had actually come from her mouth, and she cleared her throat awkwardly and looked away.

A waitress stopped by their table and politely asked if they needed anything. Piper started to say no, realizing that they didn't have any more cash on them, but Thalia beat her to the punch.

"Sure thing," the daughter of Jupiter stated confidently. "I'll take a soda—I hate coffee. What do you guys want?"

Leo, eyebrows raised, answered, "Espresso."

Piper, although she wasn't quite sure what Thalia thought she was doing, said, "I'll take a pink lemonade."

"Is that all?" the waitress—Elise, according to her nametag—asked, scribbling things down onto her notepad. Her gaze lingered on Thalia, awaiting her decision.

"Yeah," Thalia said, pantomiming like she was pulling money from her pocket. She snapped the fingers of one hand as she handed the waitress empty air. "Here's the money. That should cover it all. Keep the change."

The waitress lifted the useless air like she held a fifty dollar bill in her hand. "Thanks so much! I'll have your drinks right away."

"Dude," Leo said, wide-eyed. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Thalia inquired, genuinely confused.

"That—that thing! You didn't even hand her money but she acted like you did! Do you have that charmspeak thing, like Piper?"

"No," Piper realized, gazing at her friend in surprise. "Annabeth told me some demigods can control the Mist. That's what you did, isn't it? You snapped your fingers and tricked that mortal into believing what you said. You twisted reality."

"Don't know why I did it," Thalia replied, stunned. "I—I just went through with it. I wasn't thinking."

"Hey, if it gets us free drinks, more power to you," Leo remarked with a scoff. "Manipulate that Fog thing all you want."

After they finished their drinks, they set off towards Hera. Through dreaming of a past memory and receiving information from Aeolus, Thalia discovered where she was being kept. She was in a place called the Wolf House, somewhere Thalia had claimed that she and her brother had been.

It was located in Sonoma Valley, and Thalia somehow knew how to get to it. She kept muttering something about following her senses. Annabeth had never mentioned anything about that. Thalia said she was following some kind of travel instinct, whatever that meant.

"It's like this buzzing in the back of my brain. It gets stronger the closer we get."

Piper thought it was more likely that the pollution fumes were seeping into her brain.

They arrived in what seemed like record time, but the daughter of Aphrodite couldn't see what the big deal was. The house had been destroyed. All that was left was rubble and charred wooden beams.

But Thalia seemed to genuinely enjoy it. She was smiling—actually grinning, not giving that half-smile she always did. Her electric blue eyes scanned the forest as if she were looking for someone. Disappointed, she frowned but was quick to mask it.

"We have to get going—"

A girl ran towards them, only barely able to stop herself from fully colliding with Thalia. It was Bianca, breathing heavily and sweating. Her parka was in shreds, revealing the surprisingly defined muscles of her arms.

"Bianca!" Piper exclaimed, pleased. "What's happening?"

They all looked towards the Wolf House, shocked to see snow covering every inch of the ground surrounding it. The air was foggy and it was nearly impossible to make out anything.

"Fighting," Bianca responded. "Zoë and I are trying our best but there's too many of them."

Piper watched as Thalia instantly transformed. Her grin was gone; she was as commanding and austere as she usually was.

"How many?" she questioned firmly.

"We can't be for sure," the daughter of Hades answered, not even batting an eyelash at the demanding tone. "There are about a hundred of those things that Zoë calls the Earthborn. They're these six-armed dirt ogres."

"Dirt ogres?" Leo repeated, trying not to laugh. "Like muddy Shreks?"

"Extremely freaky," Bianca replied, apparently not understanding Leo's reference. "And wolves. An entire pack of werewolves, led by—"

"Lycaon," Thalia growled.

Piper was frightened by the shift in tone. The daughter of Jupiter had sounded so feral.

Bianca appeared astonished. "You know him?"

Thalia clenched her fists like she really didn't wish to discuss him, but she chose to explain anyway. "He and his pack are enemies of Lupa. He also hates children of Jupiter. You can say we aren't on the best terms."

"He's survived about seven arrows already. We're running out," the huntress remarked worriedly.

"I can handle him," Thalia assured. "Can you and your Hunters dispose of the others well enough?"

"Thou may depend on it. The Hunters are capable of eliminating the Earthborn." Zoë appeared from a cloud of snow. She looked rushed. "Lycaon and his pack retreated further into the woods. I cannot be sure what he is seeking, but—"

Thalia angrily stomped off, briefly shouting that she would "deal with it."

Piper had never gotten the chance to see Thalia truly angry, but she didn't exactly want to see what Thalia was planning to do to the pack of wolves.

"She is rather powerful," Zoë stated simply, as if reassuring Piper of something. "Now, come. We will show thee to thy queen."