IV- Piper

Piper awoke to Leo shouting her name.

"What- where are we?" she asked. Leo looked up at her.

"No clue, beauty queen. I suggest you get up so we can figure it out. It's just you and me."

She sat up and looked around. They were in a bizarre temple, with green seaweed hanging down from the ceiling. The room was very cold: twenty degrees, at least. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of old, cracked stone. There were several round windows (with no glass) surrounding the place, letting in murky light.

"This place is weird," said Piper. "Are there any doors?"

"Not one," Leo said. "No beds, either. Go figure."

"Are we in a temple to the gods or something?" she asked, looking around.

"Beats me," said Leo. "No idea why you'd ask, seeing as I just told you that I don't know where we are."

"Looks like some temple to Poseidon."

"Who knows?"

Piper checked her belt: Katoptris was still attached.

"Are there any other signs of life? Did you see?" Piper asked.

Leo jerked his head and said, "I don't know. I don't know anything more than you do."

Fantastic.

"I don't have any way to cook," said Leo. "Do you think you could get something we could light on fire?"

Piper let out a sigh of relief. Finally, an excuse to leave.

"Yeah, sure," Piper said. She walked over to the window and prepared to clamber through when a school of blue beta fish flurried past the window. She screamed.

"What is it?" Leo asked hurriedly.

"F-fish…" she said. "Out… out the window…"

"What?"

"Fish…"

Leo looked out the window. He seemed quite puzzled.

"What fish?"

Piper blinked. "Fish… they were just there…"

"So now we have flying fish to worry about?" Leo chuckled.

"No…" Piper said. "I think we're underwater."

"Oh."

Leo paused for a moment, and then grinned. "Hey…"

"What is it?" asked Piper.

"So we're underwater?"

"Yeah…"

"And we're breathing?"

Piper froze. Maybe he was right. Except… it wasn't wet in there…

"I don't know…" said Piper. She glared out the window and slowly put her hand through. As soon as her hand got outside of the walls, there was a small splash and her hand got very wet and very cold. Chills went down her spine as she pulled her hand out of the window.

"I think there's some kind of water barrier outside," she said.

Leo's grin faded. "So… we're stuck here?"

"Guess so."

The two of them sat down on the stone floor, which was very cold. Leo made a fireball in his hand and set it in the floor between them, providing some warmth.

"So…" said Piper. "…back on the ship…"

"What is it?" asked Leo.

"Well… it's about Annabeth."

"What about her?"

"Didn't she seem a little…?"

"Mean? 'Cause yeah, I noticed that."

"Well, yeah, but… something else…"

"What?"

Piper bit her lip. "I just mean… it sounded like she didn't really care… like… I don't know…"

"Do you think it's about Percy?" asked Leo.

"Doubt it," said Piper. "Percy was missing when we met Annabeth. She was nice then!"

"Yeah, but still…" said Leo. "What do you think it is?"

"I felt like… it was… some other force. You know?"

"Sort of," said Leo. He looked a little confused.

"I mean… Leo, you know when we were planning an attack on the crab in the bunker?"

Leo nodded.

"Well, we agreed… we knew it would throw us in the ocean."

"Yeah…"

"You… you don't think… that was a good idea?"

"How should I know?"

"But… we thought it was… at the time…"

"So?" Leo asked. He frowned and looked up hopelessly at the stone ceiling.

Piper continued. "Also… didn't you find it odd that we were attacked so quickly into the trip?"

"Well, I guess…" said Leo. "What's your point?"

"I think… I think something… wanted us to fall in… I mean, Annabeth was fine to Jason… and he's still up there… in the boat…"

The idea sickened her. Jason and Annabeth were probably sailing all across the ocean, checking the shore of every island in sight, looking for the two of them washed up. But there they were in the bottom of the ocean, with no means of communication. Her mind was in motion, and she was only vaguely aware of what Leo was saying.

"…and I think that we could try to… but if we… I don't know…"

No means of communication… was that entirely true? She remembered Annabeth telling her about something… it was like… Iris-messaging… yes, that was right!

"Leo!" she shouted suddenly, startling him.

"Beauty queen? You okay?"

"I thought of something!" Piper said excitedly. "Do you have any old Greek gold… drachmas…?"

"Um…" said Leo, turning out his pockets. "I have a piece of steel… you need steel?"

"No, I need drachmas…"

She checked her own pockets. She found coins, but it was only two dimes and a penny.

"Oh no," said Leo sarcastically. "Now we can't buy anything from crazy Greek shop owners! …I think we've seen enough of those."

"No," said Piper. "If we just had drachmas… we could talk to Jason and Annabeth…"

"How?"

"Never mind," said Piper. "It doesn't matter if we can't…"

Leo closed his eyes and frowned. He seemed to be thinking. Piper did the same. How could they get drachmas when they were cut off from everywhere else? If she was right, and they were in a temple, there might be some way to pray and get drachmas… wait a second! Aphrodite!

"Hey, Mom?" Piper muttered under her breath. "Uh… don't know if you can hear me, but… um… do… do you have any spare change…? We… uh… we could really use some…"

Piper was very worried. They needed to talk to Jason and Annabeth somehow…

"Found one," said Leo suddenly. Piper looked up, and her hope suddenly increased. Leo was holding a golden drachma in his hand that he had apparently found on the ground.

Piper glanced at the ceiling and muttered "Thanks" before running over to Leo and grabbing the coin out of his hand. "Brilliant," she said.

"Now what?" asked Leo.

"Now we need a rainbow," said Piper. "We need a way to connect to Iris."

"Who?"

"Goddess. Now how do you think we could make a rainbow?"

Leo closed his eyes, apparently thinking. "How about a flashlight or something?"

"Yeah!" Piper exclaimed.

Leo reached into his belt and pulled out a hefty flashlight, which he filled with a battery.

"Great," he said.

"Now for water," said Piper, scooping some water out of the window and splashing it on a puddle in the floor.

Leo turned the flashlight on and shone it at the puddle, which reflected brightly, leaving a rainbow.

"Great," said Piper. She flipped the Greek coin and dropped it into the rainbow, where it melted away. "Now what?"

"Say who you're looking for?" Leo suggested.

"Okay. Uh… Jason Grace and Annabeth Chase."

"Heh, that rhymes," said Leo happily.

Nothing happened.

"Um…" said Piper. "Jason Grace and Annabeth Chase on the Argo II…"

The rainbow sparked, and the surprised face of Annabeth appeared in the rainbow.

"Ah!" yelled Annabeth in surprise. "Wait… Piper? Leo? Where are you guys?"

"No clue," said Leo. "We were hoping you could help us. Where's Jason?"

"He's on land," said Annabeth. "We stopped at a nearby island. We hoped we'd find you here…"

"We're definitely underwater somewhere," said Piper. "We just don't know exactly where."

Annabeth nodded. "Probably a temple to Poseidon."

"That's what I thought."

Leo nodded in agreement. "So how do we get out?"

Annabeth thought for a moment. "I don't really know. What I do know is that you guys would be dead unless Poseidon wanted you down there for a reason. So I'm sure he'll turn up eventually."

"So what do we do?" said Leo. "Just sit here twiddling our thumbs?"

"I don't know what else you can do," said Annabeth. "Sorry… we'll find a way to get you out, promise."

And with that, as if on cue, the rainbow faded.

"Excellent," said Piper. "Well, now what?"