My Christmas present to you all! Hope you enjoy!!

PJOHOOPJOHOOPJOHOO

They instantly lost the element of surprise.

The earth rose around them before any of them could do more than find themselves facing the dark night burning around the purple bonfire, the crumbling house, great trees, and some dude they'd never met. Everything felt too bright and painful to look at with the sun on its last clinging rays of deep orange and purple after days in the dark rooms of the bottom of the ocean.

A boulder of earth launched itself in front of them like an asteroid, and Thalia and Jason just had time to shout, "go, go!" They both had spears in their hands, the bright electricity leaving streams of power in the gusting wind as they tried to slow before blasting it apart, sparing them all in life, but not mud. Magnus got a mouthful as he fell to the slick ground, people moving, scattering, and shouting that made no sense to him as it rained wet clay around him as far as he could see, he was breathing it in, choking on it-

Someone grabbed him, yanking him back to his feet as he slid about uselessly, but the warm hand braced him and he was running, spitting out clods of stones and coughing as Will began leading him towards the treeline.

The earth quickly lost interest, apparently chasing them wasn't important enough when Riptide was hacking at you.

Magnus clung to the tree like home, tasting blood mingled with the mud in his mouth he kept spitting out, his tongue felt swollen and disgusting. He couldn't even lick his jacket for a useless reprieve, he was dripping in the stuff so much he was surprised Will had even been able to spot him. Will's sharp eyes seemed pretty good at keeping track of what he wanted though, one hand still resting on him gently, but the rest of his attention clearly tracking the battle where a black blur was moving with ease every time the green and brown mud-Alex with a wild smile tangled a monster in his garrote. A reckless laugh echoed to them. At least someone was having fun.

Magnus could have easily passed for a tiny mud child.

Then Magnus realized that the living, moving, building didn't have Will's full undivided attention like it instantly did his. No matter how many times he re-read those books about gods and monsters, it would never prepare him seeing this one for the first time. Dragon legs. 30 feet tall. Breathed fire. If he just watched out of the corner of his eye, it was just the skeleton of a building, but when he focused back on the tiny little gusts of wind blowing about him like birds, somehow it was moving. His every footstep shook the earth, and the earth seemed pleased about it somehow.

Maybe later he'd get Annabeth to recite him taller buildings that were constructed by year or something to convince his mind this wasn't as big a deal as it felt.

"The ground's like quicksand out there, it's starting to pull down anyone if you don't move." Will cautioned in an eerie calm voice, even now shifting his weight from foot to foot. Magnus was the opposite, his mind racing to keep up with everything, but his hands weren't even shaking. "Annabeth's on the move," Will warned, glancing at him briefly as he shifted the books off his shoulder and pressed the bag into his hands. "You need to stay here?"

It was said as a question, but Magnus knew Will wanted it to be an order. He was a liability out there.

He put the bag on and gave the tree a grateful pat before pushing off. "Let's go."

Will didn't argue the point, but he kept a hand on his shoulder as he began leading them past the heart of the battle, right towards the flames.

The mortal chained up in the dancing shadows wasn't who they were expecting. Of course it would be to easy to find Hera chilling out here.

Magnus felt strange, seeing a person again after spending so long around demigods. Maybe it was just because this mortals eyes were broken.

Not physically. Chained hand to foot to one of the burning logs quickly licking up to him, left on the edge of the flames as if a forgotten doll, his face was gaunt, there were tears in his clothes, welts around his wrists where he was held, but there was something deeply unsettling about those eyes that Magnus had seen a hundred times before on the streets. This man would never see the world again without the horror's telling him what it was first.

"Is he Hera?" Magnus asked dumbly.

"Not a chance," Annabeth shook her head, touching his face gently. He could see from the way his cousin lingered she wasn't seeing the man they presumed to be Piper's dad. She was asking herself what she'd do if this was hers.

"Annabeth, move!"

Percy came barreling close, a rock bouncing clean off his sword and ricocheting back to its owner. "Get away from this guy, he won't shut up about you!"

They looked over and saw Jason and Thalia were holding their ground well enough, against a literal giant. With dragon legs. He had fire patterned tattoo that flashed in his bronze skin every time he used it. Of course. He was ranting about smelling a child of Athena and eating her personally while the tiny pecks of annoyance that were Thalia and Jason's spears pecking at him as he shouted his name and destiny to the sky like he expected a matradee to appear with a bread basket.

And worse, it seemed to be affecting her. There was, a lag, something in the way Annabeth's eyes swept the field that didn't feel as sharp as he knew it should. Magnus would bet a whole book she'd forgotten who she was even looking for.

Percy roared at another wave of earth-born, but the tide of mud that rose up to slam into them only seemed to annoy them. It melted into their skin and transformed into armor. He turned quickly back and grabbed her shoulders. "Enchiladas- Inca-lot's'a- whatever! Get inside, find Hera! Will, cut him loose!"

He tossed Riptide to Will, then ran forward with a torrent of wind, scooping up a pile of mud as he went and lashing it in the eyes of whoever wasn't looking at him. That just left the ones that were.

Will caught the hilt of the sword in a deft enough hand, but then looked at it as if someone had just thrown a squalling newborn at him instead as his eyes shifted to the stranger and back to them.

"You heard the man," Magnus said, thankful it wasn't him as he took Annabeth's hand and pulled. She came willingly, which was as scary as anything else going on. They turned away from the sweltering heat of the flames and the shouts, Percy using the mud shield idea himself as he bounced like a battering ram between all the fighters and keeping them as scattered as he could. He'd created miniature tsunamis at his feet, the earth couldn't keep its shape while in his presence.

Annabeth didn't fight him, barely looked behind them until they entered the building, and then she took a breath as if the crisp smell of the ice and mud in here somehow smelled better.

That's when the wolves stepped out.

Why did it have to be wolves?

Magnus whimpered. It was a sad, pathetic little noise. He pissed his pants and clung to her hand, his mind screaming at his mother they had to run as those muzzles dripped with saliva, gleaming with death. He wanted the giant back with the six armed mud monsters.

"We're with Thalia!" Annabeth said with the usual confidence back in her voice as if it had never left. She squeezed his hand in reassurance and now was the one holding him steady. She seemed to think this would make a difference, and he vaguely recalled the Hunters did have these things under their control.

They parted, and for just a moment he thought they were saved- and then she came forward, laughing. A girl pale as milk strolled amongst the monsters, a tumble of black hair and eyes coffee brown. She was ten times less terrifying than the beasts and had nothing on radiance entering a room when it came to Alex Fierro, so Magnus wasn't particularly impressed as he pulled Annabeth along, and this time she ran with him, then faster than him, pulling him into a stronger, steadier pace before the newbie could get over how funny she apparently thought she was. He knew from experience,cough-Percy-cough, that could take a moment.

"Do I even want to know?" He tried to ask in a huff of breath running for his life.

"Ice Goddess! Khione! No you don't!" She assured.

They got lost immediately, and it saved their life.

Bolting in and out of rooms scooby-doo style, somehow ending up and starting in the same place at least half a dozen times in this maze of an old house, leaping through long burnt walls and Annabeth even finding a secret tunnel under one floorboard, by the time they'd circled back to the entrance there was nothing on their tail, and a pattern of frosted footsteps leading them right to Hera's chambers.

Magnus didn't need to ask which one was Hera this time. He figured she was the tiny little bauble, because gods forbid she be inside the huge hulking body-bag getting larger every moment. Instead of zipping up over a dead face, it seemed to be doing the opposite. At this point he wasn't even surprised. He already knew lights flashing red meant run for your life in this world and green lights made you freeze in place and beg for your life against some monster.

"We need a distraction," Annabeth hissed, eyes darting to every corner of the room for inspiration.

"I still have the books," he offered lamely, patting the satchel on his hip. "Maybe if we ask nicely she'll set us up with beanbags and we can all finish in peace."

"This is no time for jokes cuz," she sighed, but he could tell she appreciated the effort. It hadn't been a joke though. He had no clue what to do other than throw them at her. Maybe Percy's magical sense of friendship would transpire through to her and all the gods if they could just start a book club.

She muttered something under her breath he didn't catch, then her jaw began to chatter until she had to clench tight to make it stop. He realized she was cold as the next huff of air out her nose came puffing white.

He wasn't. He never was. He didn't think pointing that out to the ice princess would be very impressive and distraction-y. She was currently giving orders to search the next wing to every wolf that came and went.

An arrow sprouted from her forehead.

It turned to a block of ice, making her look like a child pretending to hold an icicle in place and be a unicorn. She snarled in fury as she ripped it off, and stalked out of the room.

They'd only seen it for a split second, but it was enough for Magnus to absently wonder at the brown and purple feathers in the fletching. Which was strange. He'd been staring at Thalia's quiver on and off for days, and they were silver, like everything else she had from her goddess.

Time to worry about that later. Arrows were the only distraction they were going to get as the goddess and wolves took off in outrage, leaving the room blessedly alone.

Annabeth jumped into the pool without hesitation and crouched in front of the cage. He followed reluctantly, easing himself down and not letting go of the edge until he was sure of the drop, but then padded up beside his cousin pretending in his mind the muck dripping from him still was at least vaguely heroic looking.

The goddess was nearly up to her chest in dirt, and sinking even as they watched. She looked about as pretty as Magnus did right now. As pale as the specters he'd once imagined down in the Underworld, everything about her was gray and faded around the edges, while across from her, the other great bulbous plant thing was growing in size, somehow twice as large as when he'd first seen it already.

"The forge and the dove, the dove and the forge," Annabeth kept murmuring to herself as she began striking two stones together, and in moments she had a small flame at the end of a stick. She spun, waving the torch as if ready to make the cage and goddess inside s'mores. It did nothing, and she frowned and passed it to him. "Here Magnus, keep this on it like kindling."

He took the hand made tiki-torch without question and held it against Hera's cage, the gilded ferns thick as his arms and slick with ice and mud. Nothing happened.

Annabeth racked her mud caked fingers through her hair in frustration and turned on Hera. "What are we missing?!"

Hera's face looked like it was fading before their eyes, an oil painting melting in the muddy rain from all sides. "You are not my chosen champions, you cannot-"

"Don't tell me what I can't do!" Annabeth screamed, a shout to reach across the world of all that this goddess had done to her this week, her hand groping once again for a knife that wasn't there. "Hang onto it Magnus." He did so without question, and Annabeth went back to the pile of rocks, sticks, and broken bits of house, her eyes frantic as she continued her mantra, "the dove and the forge, the forge and the dove."

Magnus switched the flaming stick from hand to hand nervously as it dwindled towards his fingers, his eyes back to Hera. Watching her was slightly less terrifying than his cousin. "Just because you didn't get the kids you wanted to help you doesn't mean you have to be rude."

She gave him the kind of look he was all too used to seeing on the streets. Pity, disgust, all mingled with the great desire to just look right past him and forget. Even though her long slender neck didn't have a body attached, he had a feeling she'd be clutching her pearls at the sight of him. He stepped closer anyways, making sure the flames stayed on the cage, for whatever little good it was doing. He put them right in the center, vaguely hoping it was keeping her butt warm and it would put her in a better mood. "Can you explain to me why a goddess of marriage and families and all that hates the people trying to save you?"

Across the room, the crackling, disturbing noise of roots being pulled free from the earth was getting louder by the moment. He'd kill for a deforestation activist right about now to come in here and explain what that giant was doing to the environment, sucking up all the nutrients in the area for himself.

Now Hera did look at him, and he had the feeling she'd draw herself up and ball her fists up and disintegrate him for his insolence if given the chance. Color at least returned to her face as she told him coolly, "they're abominations. The gods should hold their vows sacred. Explaining this to an urchin like you from one of those burly, noisy, far off gods is a waste of my time."

"If all these guys weren't born, you'd die with nobody here to bitch at," Magnus frowned. "You get to pick your family, same as anybody else." A whisper and promise that was said on the streets, as Hearth and Blitz watched over him, when people who mattered offered to share a blanket or a slice of bread when there wasn't enough to go around. "Why not at least pick the family you like and be kind to them? Not all of you guys got married, that I heard. You could at least cut some of them some slack instead of hating all of them."

He didn't know why he grabbed the bars of her cage, he knew how stupid he sounded lecturing a goddess who would probably turn him into a peacock and forget about him as soon as she got out of the cage, but he didn't care right about then. There was a warmth in him, he felt it straight from his core. The kind of feeling he always had when he saw a tree and felt the sun bathe him through the leaves. When he thought about his mom laughing and splashing him in a stream. The bars suddenly felt brittle and useless as the stick in his hand as he kept going. His voice now, more fervent, coming more easily with each word. He glanced over and saw Annabeth's fingers trembling in the cold, a few cuts and bruises as she struggled to keep using them properly.

He felt warm enough to take his coat off.

Annabeth stood up, the contraption in her hand only she could work. She'd put together a makeshift ax somehow, the edges too blunt to really deserve the word as she'd tied together bits of everything. More like a hammer really, as she swung.

The cage cracked, and splintered. She hefted, prepared to swing again when it froze solid in her hands, then shattered. Annabeth whirled around, but whatever shout of defiance she'd been about to say was lost. All she managed to choke out was, "Thalia!?" The urgency in her voice caused him to slide in the dripping puddle of his own mud again as he tried to whip around as fast as her.

Then the earth, the sky, every particle of air around them seemed to scream in protest, one long high pitched noise of the sound barrier breaking from the force of power entering it. The ground rolled, and there was a blinding flash of light shattering the world.

Annabeth dropped down, the sword of ice from Khion's blade cutting strands of hair away, another arrow whizzing past and hitting the edge of the weapon just enough to careen it off its path away not to hit her.

But he slid.

The mud weeping off his clothes had pooled around his feet, with more and more earnestness as he'd spoken as if eager to escape him. It turned the floor into his personal slip and slide ride; banging the back of his head on her cage, the loudest crack of all. The stick snapped in half, the flame falling inside with the goddess and sputtering out on a wet hiss that held a tinge of copper in the air as Magnus raised a shaky hand to a wet spot on the back of his head, the splinters in his fingers now covered in blood. His hand was numb.

Khione burst into a pile of white mush, but he couldn't guess why as he slid down, the ground soft, not as cold as it should have been. He was going the wrong way, he thought absently, everything blurring around the edges in a strange disconnection that should have been scary, but wasn't. It was like falling, but he was going up...

HOOPJOHOOPJO

You know, in retrospect, that wasn't a very nice present at all...