They were all dead. Piper was pretty sure of this fact. She watched Leo and Ma Gasket facing eachother across the all-but demolished warehouse. He'd set up various bits of machinery – which was impressive in itself - but, as far as Piper could tell, he was running out of options. She desperately wanted to help, but, chained upside-down and suspended from the ceiling, there wasn't a great deal she could do. She'd been hanging like an overripe fruit for what felt like a very long time, and her head was spinning. She poured all of her effort on concentrating on what Leo and the Cyclops were doing. Come on, Leo, she thought, you can do this! Ma Gasket snarled, "Any more tricks, demigod?" Leo's gaze was fixed on a spot near the ceiling. What was he looking at? Then she saw. Or, at least, she thought she did: a dark shape in the shadows. She couldn't see what it was, but it obviously meant something to Leo. Whatever you do, don't get distracted! But he seemed to know what he was doing. She hoped he did, anyway. "Heck, yeah, I've got tricks!"He raised the little gadget he'd been using to control the machines, "Take one more step, and I'll destroy you with fire!" What? Piper didn't see how he could do that, but he sounded pretty confident. There was an edge of fear behind his voice, but he was holding together well; she knew him better than most, and hoped that Ma Gasket couldn't read him as well as she could. Was he bluffing? Was that his game? Ma Gasket laughed, and Piper's heart sank. Her vision was beginning to blur, and thinking straight was getting harder and harder. "Would you? Cyclopes are immune to fire, you idiot." Had Leo known this? "But if you wish to play with flames, let me help!" The cyclops mother flung a massive fistful of hot coals and they landed all around his feet. Some of them must have hit him, but Piper hadn't seen him wince. "You missed," he said. Same old Leo, she thought, and fought the irrational urge to laugh. She wasn't laughing a few seconds later; Ma Gasket's grin of pure sadistic pleasure and amusement made Piper's skin crawl. She realised the cyclops' plan a split-second before it happened. "No!" she screamed, as a firestorm swirled up around them. She felt the heat scorch the tips of her hair, and she and the senseless Jason were suspended several metres away. Her best friend had been reduced to a column of ashes; no-one could have survived that. Ma Gasket's shriek of delight died in her throat as the kerosene-fueled flames burned away, leaving her and… "Leo?" Piper gasped, and Ma Gasket's astonishment evidently matched her own. "You live? What are you?"
"The son of Hephaestus," Leo's voice was low and dangerous; as far from his usual manner as Piper had ever heard, "And I warned you I'd destroy you with fire." Piper watched with disbelief as he raised his finger to the object in the shadows of the warehouse ceiling and shot a bolt of white-hot flame heavenwards. Nothing happened. Piper could feel her own heartbeat throbbing through her skull. Nobody moved. She saw Leo stagger slightly, exhausted by the effort. Ma Gasket faltered, then laughed again. "An impressive try, son of Hephaestus. It's been many centuries since I saw I fire user." A fire user? Leo? "You'll make a spicy appetizer!" A metallic clink sounded above the cyclops, and she didn't even get the chance to look up. The dangerous edge was still in Leo's voice, "I don't think so." The sound of the metal block smashing Ma Gasket into the ground reverberated through the warehouse. At first, Piper recoiled as it made her ears ring, but eventually her head started to clear. She realised what he'd done; the firebolt had severed the chain holding the block to the crane, though how he'd done it was beyond her. "Not immune to engines, huh?" The tone of his voice was something more like what Piper was used to, "Boo-yah!" Then his knees buckled. "Leo! " She had to yell his name several times before he showed any signs of hearing her. He looked up. "Leo! Are you alright? Can you move?" He stumbled to his feet, painfully slowly as far as Piper could see. It took him a long time to disentangle her from her chains. The dazed look in his eyes and the slowness of his movements made Piper think that she was going to be dropped down, unprotected, on to the hard floor. She braced herself, but just before the last loop was undone, he put an arm around her shoulders so that her feet hit the floor first, then lowered her the rest of the way. The impact sent a stab of pain through her newly-healed ankle, but it was better than the alternative. They did the same with the still-unconscious Jason, Piper holding his arms and shoulders – he was considerably heavier than either of them – while Leo undid the chains. They turned him over, and Piper anxiously trickled a little nectar into his mouth. He groaned, and a little colour returned to his face. "Yeah, he's got a nice thick skull," Leo said, "I think he's gonna be fine." Piper let out a little sigh of relief, murmuring,
"Thank god," then looked across at her friend, her mind filled with the image of him standing amidst the swirling flames. She didn't quite manage to stop herself from stammering as she asked, "How did you – the fire – have you always..?" Leo stared at the ground.
"Always. I'm a freaking menace. Sorry, I should've told you guys sooner, but-"
"Sorry?" she demanded, "That was amazing, Valdez! You saved our lives. What are you sorry about?" She shook her head, "I thought you were a goner for sure. Us too." He managed a smile,
"Your faith in me is inspiring, Beauty Queen."
"Hey!" She protested, "How people do you know who can stand in a firestorm and come out without even a singe mark?" He shrugged. "Anyhow," she said, "I'm glad you weren't incinerated." Then she put her arms around his neck and hugged him. He stiffened, evidently surprised, then hugged her back. "That would've pretty much sucked. Can you imagine me and Jason tracking down the venti on foot?" She laughed nervously, "More to the point, can you imagine me or Jason trying to fix a flying dragon?" She let him go.
"I'd kick back and have a good laugh in the Underworld. Classic entertainment." The laughter died on his lips when he saw the dusty remains of the cyclopes. "They're forming again," he told her, "look."
"That's not possible," she looked uneasy, "Annabeth told me monsters dissapate when they're killed. They go back to Tartarus and can't return for a long time."
"Well, nobody told the dust that." All the while, Piper could see the dust collecting into piles that - oh, so slowly – were morphing into shapes with arms and legs. "Oh, god." She felt the blood drain from her face, "Boreas said something about that – the earth yielding up horrors . 'When monsters no longer stay in Tartarus, and souls are no longer confined to Hades.' How long do you think we have?"
"I don't know," he replied, "but we need to get out of here."
"Right," she said, sounding more confident than she felt, "Let's grab Jason and go. He's not going to wake up in time to help, and we can't leave him. We can carry him between us, can't we?" Leo nodded, kicking at the dust in an attempt to disperse it. They grabbed an arm each and dragged Jason towards the warehouse door. "Can Festus fly?" Piper asked breathlessly when they got about five yards from the automaton.
"Take Jason." Leo said, and sprinted away before she could reply. She heard him muttering in Spanish as he adjusted the wires in the back of Festus' head. She dragged Jason as best she could, but he was a dead weight. "Sí! Muy bien!" She'd known Leo long enough and studied enough basic Spanish in school to tell that he'd done it. Her relief was short-lived, however. She could hear movement in the warehouse; they had minutes, at best. "Leo, help!" She'd reached Festus. She pushed , he pulled, and eventually they got Jason into place behind Leo. "Hold him steady." He told her as Festus soared into the sky. She quickly did up the safety harnesses of both herself and Jason. Below them, the cyclopes roared for vengeance, but they were already safely in the air. Leo turned in his seat and grinned. She returned the smile, a little shakily, thinking, maybe we can do this after all.