A short story in Bianca's point of view. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
I used to be a girl who never was one for adventure.
I was a girl who wanted everything to end… to find a safe and happy place for Nico and I. It was hard to, with all the strangeness in my life going around… and that hole in my mind where all the memories from before we got sent to Las Vegas were supposed to be bothered me a lot. So when I found out we were demigods, I wasn't excited.
Not the least.
No, I was terrified. That knowledge would bring an end to any hope to getting a normal life. Nico and I weren't normal. And when you aren't normal, well, you can't have a normal life, can you?
When Artemis offered me to become a Hunter, I knew that was it. I had to take this offer. It wasn't such a hard choice at a glance. A lifetime babysitting your little brother or eternity with the Hunters? If you couldn't have a normal life, why not a life of adventure and action? I almost said yes right there and then, but I couldn't leave Nico. He was only ten, and he couldn't take care of himself.
In the end, I accepted Artemis' offer. A life free of responsibility was what I chose. I had actually convinced myself I'd made the right choice when I told Nico. He just turned away. That hurt me, a lot. So much I almost grabbed the first guy and kissed him to break off my oath and be Nico's big sister again.
~0~
The junkyard of Hephaestus was truly a junkyard at first glance. I could see body parts made of metal littering the ground everywhere. Broken weapons, modern appliances… The objects were in a junkyard but I could hardly imagine why some of it was junk. Beautiful statues that would've impressed art critics around the world, a shiny golden car that would've made Apollo jealous… "Whoa," I commented. "That stuff… some of it looks like real gold."
"It is," Thalia said grimly. Her blue eyes were darting around like she expected a monster to appear from out of nowhere and attack us. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."
"Junk?" Grover picked up crown made of precious metals. Jewels were embedded in it. It would've cost a lot if it wasn't broken on one side. "You call this junk?" He bit off a point and began to chew furiously. This time, it didn't surprise me. I'd adjusted to the weird quirks of Grover a long time ago, and stifled a smile when Thalia swiped the crown away from Grover as he began to take another bite.
"I'm serious!" she said sternly. She wanted to get out of here as fast as she could, unlike me. Everything was so fascinating.
"Look!" I said. I had spotted a familiar shape in the distance, and ran down the hill of junk towards the faint outline of a Hunter's bow, glowing underneath the moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!" I held it but it began to shrink until it was a hair clip shaped as a crescent. It reminded me of the moon. I put it against the dark sky to compare. "It's just like Percy's sword!"
Zoe did not share my amusement. "Leave it, Bianca."
"But –"
"It's here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."
I put the hair clip down gently, not wanting to leave it behind. It was such a clever invention…
My fingers brushed against a small statue. I picked it up. It looked oddly like the one of Nico's Mythomagic figurines. I smiled and then remembered Nico wasn't speaking to me. My hand automatically closed over the statuette. It was wrong, but it was for Nico, and that was what mattered. I joined the others as they were talking with a twinge in my heart.
"You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" Percy was asking sarcastically.
Thalia aimed a look at him. Her fingers were wrapped tightly around the shaft of her spear. "Zoe is right, Percy. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now come on, let's get across the yard."
"That's the second time you've agreed with Zoe," he said under his breath but no one was listening to him. We started making our way across mountains and hills of junk and rubbish. The trek was long and quiet, and Zoe looked up occasionally at the stars to check if we were going towards the right direction. We were supposed to leave the items alone, but Percy and Grover couldn't help but pick a few up. They did put it back down, and when they did so, my hand crept towards my pocket nervously. The figurine was like a dead weight in my pocket. When I had first picked it up, it wasn't this heavy… was it?
The end was in front of us, maybe only about half a mile. But…
"What is that?" I gasped. The hill was unlike the others. It was much larger, and I hoped we didn't have to climb over it. The lumpy columns reminded me of something. "They look like –"
"Toes," Grover took the word out of my mouth.
I nodded. "Really, really large toes." An unusual shape, even in a junkyard, but how could toes be menacing? Zoe and Thalia thought differently. They exchanged a nervous look.
"Let's go around," Thalia suggested in a tone that said it wasn't just a suggestion, but an order. "Far around."
"But the road is right over there," Percy argued. "Quicker to climb over." Was it just me or did he have to disagree with everyone all the time?
Ping. My hand went to my hunting knife, and then to my pocket. If it was a monster, I could just throw the statue down and maybe that was all it wanted. But it was only Grover. The scrap piece of metal he had thrown bounced off a toe and made a deep echoing sound, as if the toe was hollow on the inside.
"Why did you do that?" Zoe demanded.
Grover winced under her harsh tone. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?"
"Come on." Thalia looked at Percy as if challenging him to protest. "Around."
Percy didn't answer. He was as freaked out as I was. Who kept toes in a junkyard – more importantly, why did someone make these toes in the first place?
After a few minutes of walking, we were out on the highway. There were no cars around. It was just the five of us. We've made it, I thought. The small statue was still in my pocket. I thought of Nico's face when he would receive it, and it was worth it.
"We made it out," Zoe said just what I was thinking. "Thank the gods."
Just then, a loud crushing noise was heard. My heart pounded as we spun around to see the toes rising up. The toes lowered onto the ground. They didn't just look like toes. They were toes, toes for a giant metal statue wearing Greek armour. He was a statue so tall I got that dizzying feeling I had first felt when I saw the Manhattan skyline after many years trapped in that cursed hotel. His face looked down at us and I shut my eyes at the unpleasant sight. His left side was melted off. He moved, and the joints creaked loudly in protest. Wsah em, the letters read on his chest. Wash me. What a time for a joke.
"Talos!" Zoe gasped.
"Who's – who's Talos?" Percy stuttered.
"One of Hephaestus's creations," Thalia explained. "But that can't be the original. It's too small." Too small? The statue was huge! "A prototype, maybe. A defective model."
The metal giant took offence at her words and took out his sword. I put my hands to my ears as it slowly came out, metal clashing against metal. The blade was long. A hundred feet, and that was downsizing it. If someone got hit by it, they would no doubt get seriously injured if they didn't die.
"Someone took something," Zoe said. She'd figured it out. I bit my lip. "Who took something?" I almost took out the statue. But Nico… Zoe looked at Percy first.
He shook his head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief." He glanced at me and I was sure he knew I was guilty. He opened his mouth to speak but Talos took one step towards us and we nearly got knocked off our feet.
"Run!" Grover yelped.
At least someone was thinking straight, except that running could barely help at this point. His strides were long. He could go the pace of an old lady and still manage to crush us.
We split up. Thalia took out her shield, the one with a monster's face on it. She ran down the highway and dodged the shower of sparks from the cut power lines. Talos had swung his sword.
Zoe's arrows shot towards the face, but they did no damage against the metal. Grover climbed up a mountain of metal, which was easy for him with his hooves. I ended up next to Percy, behind a broken chariot, trying to avoid the power sparks.
"You took something," he accused. "That bow."
"No!" I said, but I couldn't keep my voice from trembling.
"Give it back!" he said. "Throw it down!"
My hands tightened into fists. "I… I didn't take the bow! Besides, it's too late." It was the truth.
"What did you take?" I was about to answer when we heard a loud creak and a shadow stopped the moonlight from spilling onto the ground. "Move!" he commanded and sprinted down the hill. I slipped on the junk, but managed to get far away enough to see Talos destroy our original hiding spot. Another step and he would kill us.
"Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled. The giant metal contraption held up his sword as if to kill us. He played a quick melody on his pipes. The notes ran together. The cut power lines began to dance and wrapped around Talos's leg. The metal began sparkling.
"Come on!" he told me. But I couldn't move. Was this worth it? I took out the small metal statue, my reminder of Nico.
"It… it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have," I said and wiped away a small tear.
"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" he demanded.
I knew I was crying. Because it's for Nico. And Nico's always in my mind… I joined the Hunters to stop being a big sister, but maybe that's what I liked being after all.
"Throw it down," he said. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone."
I let it fall from my hands.
Nothing happened.
Talos was still trying to kill Grover. The sword stabbed into a junk hill, missing Grover by a bit, but the avalanche it caused overtook Grover and buried him under.
"No!" Thalia screamed. Her spear aimed, and lightning struck. The giant fell down and for a wild moment I thought it was over. The giant only got back up again, and I had a feeling it was pissed.
He raised his foot.
"Crazy-idea time," Percy announced.
I looked at him nervously, wondering if I wanted to hear it. "Anything."
He described the small manhole at the bottom of Talos's foot. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."
"How? You'll have to stand under its foot!" You'll be crushed." It was a crazy idea. I couldn't imagine how it would succeed.
"Distract it," Percy said. "I'll just have to time it right."
I clenched my teeth. Say the right thing. "No. I'll go."
"You can't. You're new at this! You'll die."
"It's my fault the monster came after us," I countered. "It's my responsibility. Here." I picked the small statue up carefully and put it in Percy's hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him… tell him I'm sorry."
"Bianca, no!" he called. I was already running for Talos's left foot. Thalia was distracting it. I balanced myself on the metal scraps that swayed from his weight. I could hear Zoe yelling in the distance but the blood was pounding in my ears.
"Get it to raise its foot!" I yelled to Zoe. She shot an arrow to somewhere above me.
Percy ran up the its big toe and stabbed it with his sword. Talos raised his foot to step on Percy and I grabbed my chance. I pulled on the hatch and it swung open. The foot was coming down already. I jumped up and hung on, closing the hatch just in time as a shudder ran through the body. I hoped that Percy was alive and began climbing up a ladder built into the wall of the inside of his foot. With every rung, my mind raced.
Sorry Percy, I thought and gripped the rung tightly as the foot came down again. It was like being on a rollercoaster. Sorry Grover. I heard his pipes somewhere far off and something whacked the side of the foot, nearly knocking me down. I furiously kept climbing until I figured I was around somewhere in his stomach. If my logic was correct, the control system was somewhere in his head. There was another ladder leading up his body. Gears cranked and steam puffed next to me. A miracle if my life wasn't in danger. "Grover!" Thalia and Percy said. Sorry Thalia. I'd admired the strong girl from a distance. Her courage was something I envied. I reached the head. The eyes were glass windows so I could see outside. Grover had collapsed and Talos was just about to kill him by squishing him in a bug. I looked around the room full of levers and switches and buttons. I grabbed the first lever my hands met and pulled it down. The monster froze and then jerked around. I grabbed the pole that ran in the middle of the room and pressed another button.
"Go, Bianca!" Percy yelled. I smiled and began clicking and pulling at random.
Sorry Zoey. Her expression was horrified. "She is inside?"
"Go!" I shouted at her, but she couldn't hear me. "Run!" If Zoe died… I couldn't drag her down with me. She had the Hunters to lead. The monster was staggering around and I couldn't control it to stop it from walking on them. They did run onto the highway, dragging Grover behind them. I pushed a button and the sword swung up to hit the head. My hand tightened on the pole just in time to avoid being thrown back down to Talos's stomach. Sorry everyone. I betrayed your trust. I got you all in danger. I'm not a worthy Hunter. My hand met a switch. I hesitated, and then pushed on it. Talos tripped over the wires, and before I knew it, electricity was shooting up the monster.
When you're about to die, the speed of your thoughts quickens. You want to treasure every moment you have before your time comes to an end.
One shall be lost in the land without rain. It was just like the prophecy predicted. I was to die in a desert. I thought of my choice of becoming a Hunter, and wondered, for the millionth time if I made the wrong choice. In the end, I'd disappointed everyone anyway.
Charges of electricity slammed into my body. There was no way I could survive this unless I was a daughter of Zeus. As I felt my soul wandering off to the sky, I looked down at the stunned four. No, I wasn't a daughter of Zeus. The metal figurine was in Percy's hand. He would give it to Nico like I asked him. I'm sorry, Nico, for not being the sister I should've been.
I journeyed off to my father's realm.
Please comment. I'm working on improving my writing. If you didn't like something, go ahead. If you did like it, thanks.