Aquarius didn't answer. He pulled out his phone and dialed Ford's number. He picked up right away.
"What's wrong? Need us to go and force them here?"
"No," Aquarius said. "Is Tempest acting normal?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I'll tell you later. If she acts like she's in pain, call me right away."
"Answer me," Lance growled. He hated being ignored.
Aquarius turned to him, an impatient look on his face. "I have reason to believe that the gods put a virus in her brain. If that is true, it will slowly drive her mad and then kill her, all while being in extraordinary pain."
Lance blinked. The blinked again. "How do we remove it."
"Only you guys can. Because the virus is in her mind, you have to forge a telepathic connection with her and destroy it." Then he got the call.
Lance waited impatiently as Aquarius answered.
A virus. In her brain. That only we can destroy. It has been longer than I can bother to remember since we forged such a connection. Would we be able to do it? Would she be willing to do it? It would require sharing pieces of our souls with each other, if only briefly. That's not a painless endeavor
He clenched and unclenched his fists, getting more and more worked up the more he thought about it. How dare they do such a thing to her.
Aquarius answered the call. "Yes?" He asked, hoping against hope that the call was for something stupid.
"Bro, she's seizing up and screaming."
"Shit!" Aquarius said. "When did it start?"
"About a minute ago. Why? What's going on?"
Aquarius hung up and turned back to the goat. "We need to go now. It's started."
Lance looked up just as Leon and Levi thundered up the stairs. They had been waiting outside, and they came as soon as Lance told them what happened. He then looked at Aquarius. "You mind flying by Chimera?"
Aquarius almost laughed with relief. "No. But we need to hurry. I can use the Mist to disguise you."
"Great." The brothers hurried down the steps with Aquarius, then linked arms as soon as they were outside. Their bodies fused together, and then a twelve-foot tall creature with a lion's body and head, a ram's head and hind legs with matching horns on the lion, and a dragon's head, wings, and tail stood in their place.
Aquarius snapped his fingers, and they flickered into a bird. With his trained eye, he carefully climbed onto them and crossed his fingers. "Hurry. She won't last long."
The creature's growled and it launched into the air, flying at an exceptionally fast rate despite its seemingly heavy body. It headed towards Tempest's scent, where multiple demigod scents were gathered as well. It swooped low and roared, warning the demigods below to give it room to land.
Aquarius leaped down even before they landed. He knelt down beside his sister. She was writhing and panting, sweat and tears drenching her. He looked around at the other demigods. "Go inside now and plug your ears. Do not listen to anything until I come."
"What's happening to her?" A demigod asked.
It was Hera who answered. "Dionysus put a virus in her mind."
"And she is going to be in a lot of pain. She might even reach the Banshee scream level, where if you listen, it will kill you. So go, now."
They scurried away.
The Chimera approached Aquarius and Tempest, the exchange better if the brothers' soul was not fractured. "What would you have us do?" It was a strange combination of all three of their voices, but to those who have never interacted with the brothers when they were split apart, it didn't sound strange at all.
Aquarius didn't spare them a glance. "Forge a temporary telepathic connection with her. You'll have to destroy the virus from the inside, so that it doesn't do deeper."
It's been a while since we've done that…
Yeah, but we have no choice.
We're doing it.
Lance was determined to not let the gods win this one. Plus, he had vowed to protect her to the best of his ability. He wouldn't back out on that. The Chimera stepped up to Tempest's head, then bowed its three heads to touch them against hers. They stretched out their connected mind and reached for Tempest's. She would need to let them in. If not, it was either enter by force or do nothing. Both options were not an option in Lance's book.
Tempest was in pain. She was pain. She was trapped in her own mind, unable to tell anyone what was wrong. People would get hurt because of her, and she couldn't help it. Then, suddenly, she felt someone trying to get into her mind. She resisted at first, then recognized it. She let them in. They could tell the others what was happening.
Tempest. It was a desperate Lance talking. Connected with his brothers, he was better at expressing how he was feeling. Tempest, we want to help you. But you have to let us. We can destroy the virus, but you need to tell us where it is.
Tempest was finding it hard to think. "A-alright," she managed to get out. "Come in."
They entered her mind and searched for the source of the virus. It was spreading rapidly. They decided to spit up their collective conscience to cover more ground, so to speak. Lance's mind curled around Tempest's comfortingly, as if he was cradling her in his arms. "I'm sorry if it sounded like I didn't care about you." He spoke to her to try and get her mind off of what was happening while his brothers frantically searched for the source of the virus. "I do. I just find it hard to express myself accurately. Or even recognize what I'm feeling."
Levi found a dark mass and beckoned for Leon. The two tried figuring out how to destroy it quickly but as painless as possible.
If it was possible, Tempest would have blushed. "Oh," she said. It was easier to not think about the pain when he was 'talking.' "Well, I-I care about you, too."
Lance seemed to heave in relief. So she didn't completely hate him. But what had he done last night to upset her? Not now. A subject for a later time. "Levi seems to find your brother attractive. He turned into a lizard to avoid talking to him." Lance shamelessly dug into his brothers' minds to find something to talk about with Tempest. "I also remember the disaster that was Leon's first crush."
The two victims of this subject grumbled in irritation but kept their focus on the black mass. There were a few cracks in the seams that they could use as leverage, but they were still unsure.
Tempest laughed. "Levi? He has a crush on my brother? Which one?"
His own consciousness flickered with humor. "Aquarius, I believe he said his name was. And it's not so much a crush as a physical attraction."
Tempest laughed so hard she almost cried. Mentally, at least. "Aquarius? Oh, that's priceless! I bet he smirked at him. Aquarius is such a flirt, it's horrible. I don't think he believes in commitment."