Hi, I'm back! I am SO sorry this took forever to be posted; I've had to make my updates only on the weekends due to my busy schedule. Trust me, I'm as disappointed about that as you are :( . Nonetheless, I will still be updating, so no worries.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympains/ Heroes of Olympus


Nico's POV

As Percy kicked down the door, Nico realized that he had been holding his breath in anticipation. He really had no idea of what to expect out there.

The five demigods and Cyclops charged through the doorway but immediately stopped once outside. No one really knew what they had expected to be on the other side, but judging from everyone's awed expressions, it wasn't what they ended up finding.

The group of half-bloods were now standing on a scond-floor balcony looking out at the inside of a tall, cylindrical building. It resembled the Leaning Tower of Piza in its structure, though the architecture on the outside of the famous landmark was now on the inside, like an inverse of the famous Tower.

Nico looked upwards and saw dozens of balconies, similar to the one they were standing on, ringing the building all the way up to the open top, where bright blue sky was visible. Each balcony was supported with tan and worn pillars, the same color as the walls and floors.

Stretched across the center of the tower were small threads from which…flags hung. Not just any flags, either. There were checkered flags used at a finish line, red flags that sometimes signaled the start of a race, yellow ones, Olympic ones, as well as countless others all connected to competitions in some way.

Nico had by now approached the edge of the walkway they were all standing on, and looking down he saw a chariot track lining the bottom, complete with an ornately decorated Roman chariot that appeared to be running the track on its own with no horses nor rider.

What deeply saddened Nico, however, were the nymphs. He saw maybe twenty of them all strolling about Ordoa's temple, all of them handcuffed and either carrying a platter of food or cleaning the tower in some way. She had enslaved so many...

Suddenly, the son of Hades heard a familiar voice from across the center of the building.

"I swear, Nike can be the worst sister sometimes," Ordoa whined, stepping out of a door opposite from where the demigods stood and rambling on to one of her nymphs. "Can I not have one competition in which no one wins? No, apparently I can't. 'Victory is an important virtue in a game.' Ha! Virtue my-"

The goddess stopped when she saw her former prisoners in the midst of their escape.

"What…is this?" Ordoa asked incredulously, throwing her hands out in front of her and gesturing to her many escapees. "What is this?" Ordoa's eyes flashed orange in their tell tale sign of her rage rising to a dangerous level.

"Uh…we were looking for the bathroom?" Percy lamely answered, looking for an excuse.

Under her breath, Thalia added, "The dam bathroom."

Having heard her, Percy looked at his cousin as if he couldn't believe she'd just said that. She returned the look for only a second before they both started cracking up, despite their present situtation. Nico had no idea what was so funny.

"Are you laughing at ME?" Ordoa shrieked at Percy and Thalia.

"N-No, just a-an inside j-joke!" Thalia laughed, struggling to get her words out between her gasps of laughter.

Suddenly, Ordoa appeared right next to Nico on the edge of the group in a puff of red smoke. That shut Percy and Thalia right up.

"How did you get out of my arena?" she demanded.

"Well, you didn't 'capture' any of us, really. We could already walk wherever we wanted in the arena," Nico replied cockily. "You also didn't tie down the flying demigod, so…really its no surprise we got out."

Ordoa was turning beet red with anger and embarrassment. Here she was, an immortal goddess, getting stood up by a simple group of bratty demigods. She planned to have a talk with their parents the next time she visited Olympus. Someone needed to teach these children some respect.

"Nymphs!" Ordoa snapped suddenly. "Grab them." Quicker than anyone could react, the miscellaneous naiads and dryads mulling about the tower rushed forward and grabbed the arms of each demigod- and Cyclops.

A female dryad with hair the color of cherry wood lightly grabbed Nico's leather-clad arms.

"I'm sorry," she whispered softly in his ear. "If I disobey Ordoa, she'll have my head." She emphasized this by running a hand delicately under her neck in a slicing motion before returning it to its place on Nico's upper arm.

"It's okay," he whispered back. "I understand." Nico was thinking of the time he'd taken Percy to Hades last summer, only to have his best friend thrown in jail by his dad. Of course, Nico hadn't intended that last part to happen, but he could still relate to having to follow a boss's orders or face consequences.

"It seems that you are all unaware of my little rule," Ordoa began, gaze drifting from one demigod to the next. "This is not the first time I've… 'borrowed' people to fight in a competition for me. Each time, I always promise to let the winner go free, while the losers that don't die have to stay with me for eternity." She said the last part with an evil grin of malice spreading across her fairly tanned face.

"Or," she added, "if I have a change of heart, they will be let go. Of course, that rarely ever happens, so I mostly go by the first option. See all my nymphs?" She waved her hands around the tower. "They are all the defeated opponents from my many battles, commited to serving me for the rest of their lives."

"Are we the first demigods you've used, then?" Hazel asked timidly, glancing around at the many nymphs holding them captive.

"Oh, no. There are a couple demigods already here as well. They just might be off running errands for me, or completing some other task."

Nico couldn't help but feel an unruly anger build up inside his chest. Ordoa didn't seem to care about her prisoners; they were like pets to her. In fact, if she did have a pet, she'd probably care more about it than the people she had enslaved from her forced competitions. The son of Hades didn't care if Ordoa was partly the goddess of rank and liked an hierarchy system; slavery is and always will be wrong.

"Hold up," Thalia interjected. "If the winners get to go, why haven't I been freed? I mean, I technically just won that battle, didn't I?"

Ordoa rolled her eyes at the Huntress. "Please. I fought that battle, really. You were simply my…armor, I guess you could say. You did nothing. Therefore, there were no winners in that little skirmish."

"But-"

"Don't 'but' me, girl," Ordoa warned Thalia. "My rules are the only rules here."

"Then lets make some more," Jason offered, stepping to the front of the crowd and pulling his nymph along with him. "I have a deal for you: we all compete in a series of competitions, and the winner of each battle gets to be set free. If you win…then you can choose one of us to keep forever. One person is either freed or imprisoned with each battle. I propose there be…six competitions of various kinds, that way each of us will have a chance to go back to where we came from."

"That's-"

"I'm not finished," Jason cut off Ordoa, earning a small gasp from one of the nymphs at his sudden take over of power. "It's also enough chances for you to capture all of us as your slaves."

He sure spent a lot of time thinking that one through, Nico thought with a hint of admiration. I just wish he'd consulted us before launching the offer. What if Nico and the others didn't want to risk their chances of freedom by competing against Ordoa? Even so, Nico had to admit that it was a pretty good plan, and it at least gave them a 50/50 chance at escape. Besides, they couldn't back out now. Ordoa was already in deep thought about taking up the deal.

Nico stole a glance at his half-sister Hazel, and he saw her nervous expression plastered on her face. She turned and glanced up at Percy, as if looking for some sort of reassurence that everything would be okay. In her golden eyes, Nico recognized a look of reminiscence he'd often seen on ghosts faces as they were granted a tidbit of an old memory from their past. Percy seemed lost in reveries as well, and when he noticed Hazel he nodded as if to say "It'll be okay." Nico made a mental note to ask the two what that little exchange had been about.

Ordoa finally smirked at Jason, who'd kept a poker face the entire time, and stuck out her hand. "I accept your deal. What shall the first challenge be?"

Jason turned to look at his friends for ideas.

"Chariots!" Tyson exclaimed, pointing down at the track below that lined the floor of the tower.

"Wonderful," Ordoa responded. "Chariot racing will be the first challenge."

Jason shook her hand, and suddenly the world around them twisted in on itself, changing the scenery in a whirl of color to now show the track that Tyson had pointed to.

"What was that?" Percy asked, blinking his eyes harder than normal, like he had was trying to refocus his vision after getting dizzy.

"Simple teleportation trick," Ordoa shrugged, clapping her hands together like people do when they finish a job. Nico took in his surroundings; the track was a formidable size, made of dusty sand, and lined with chalk borders. The single white chariot that had been racing solo before now pulled to a stop before Ordoa. The goddess clapped once, and a brilliant, chocolate brown mare materialized in front of her, already attached to the chariot. Nico wondered if the horse had previously been invisible or had literally just formed out of the air.

"I trust you can summon your own steeds?" Ordoa asked offhand, assuming that they wouldn't be able to and would have to forfeit the challenge. That'd make them all the losers, and she could get a prize already in the first race.

Percy, Jason, and Hazel all exchanged a smirk before Percy and Hazel whistled loudly and Jason raised his hand to the sky above them. Thunder clouds blocked out the clear blue circle of sky at the top of the tower, and whinnying could be heard in the distance. Suddenly, a black, beige, and gray mass swooped down from the top. The bundle of neighs spread apart to reveal three familiar horses.

"Blackjack!" Percy exclaimed happily as his black Pegasus landed next to him, shaking his mane and neighing urgently at his master. "Yeah, I missed you too," Percy laughed, and with a small shove he added, "and stop calling me 'boss,' okay?"

Hazel looked like a little girl on Christmas, jumping up and down and eyes filled with pure joy. "Arion," she breathed as the beige stallion sprinted in a blur down the side of the tower and slowed in front of the daughter of Pluto. Arion whinnied at Hazel, and Percy turned wide-eyed to look at the daughter of Pluto.

"Your horse has a dirty, dirty mouth," he informed her before shaking his head and turning back to his own horse.

The last steed was one Nico had never seen before; a grey venti galloped through the air and hovered next to Jason, neighing as a tiny flash of lightening lit up inside his swirling winds of a body.

"Hey again," Jason smiled, petting his horse's stormy mane. "Glad you could make it." Then, turning to Ordoa, Jason asked, "I trust that you'll be supplying the chariots?"

The goddess still looked a bit stunned at the arrival of the demigod's stallions, and she subconsciously waved her hand and created three chariots- one for each horse.

"We will be riding in pairs, right?" Percy asked as he and Tyson strapped Blackjack into a silver chariot that had appeared. Jason and Thalia tied their venti to a golden chariot, and Hazel joined Nico in reining in Arion and attaching him to a bronze chariot.

That snapped Ordoa out of her stupor, bringing her to say, "If you ride in pairs, that means there will be two winners and I'll lose two of you in one challenge!"

"Fine," Percy sighed, refraining from sighing in annoyance of her catching on to their trick. "If you win this race, you'll get two demigods as prisoners, since we will be finishing and losing as teams. How's that?"

"Percy," Nico started, looking anxiously at his friend. "Are you sure that's the right thing to do?"

"Yes," the son of Poseidon said with a curt nod. Nico sighed tiredly; he knew he wouldn't be able to change the stubborn demigod's choice.

"I accept," Ordoa grinned. She lifted a hand into the air and waved over a nymph that had been sweeping over in the corner. The nymph dropped his broom immediately and sprinted to Ordoa's side. "Elk, you'll be my racing partner."

Elk agreed by saying, "It'd be my pleasure," though it was clear in his voice he found no pleasure in doing his assigned task.

The four pairs all lined up their horses and chariots onto the track, where a second nymph, this one another dryad, stood at the starting line with a red flag.

"3 laps total, first to cross the finish line wins their freedom," she said in a monotone voice, obviously bored and wishing she was somewhere else. "On your marks…"

Hazel and Nico stepped into their chariot, Hazel holding on to Arion's reins in eager anticipation of the race.

"Get set." The three other couples boarded their chariots and situated themselves into the right positions.

The dryad swung her flag downwards while shouting, "Go!"

The four chariots' reins whipped upwards with various cries of "Hyah!" and "Go!", and the race for freedom began.

Nico and Hazel immediately took the lead, Arion racing at the speed of sound and easily weaving in between the multiple chariots. Shouts of protests echoed from behind them, but the calls did nothing to wipe away the wide smile on Hazel's face.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Nico yelled over the sound of the chariot's spinning wheels and Arion's hooves burning against the ground.

"Well, no... but it's fun!" Hazel exclaimed back, whipping the reins in a signal for Arion to go even faster.

Suddenly, Arion's speed slowed down so drastically that it sent both demigods flying to the front of the chariot and the chariot flying into Arion. The horse tumbled to the ground in a tangle of ropes, people, and chariot.

"What the-"

A polished, shining white chariot gilded in gold sped by the toppled demigods, toting a nymph and a laughing goddess. "You two had already finished two laps in your super speed chariot, so I had to throw in a little speed bump to slow you down."

A large brick of rock that Nico was just now noticing had appeared in Arion's path, causing the stallion to stumble and get tangled in his reins.

"Oh, two can play at that game," Hazel scowled with a fierceness Nico had never heard in her before. From underneath the chariot that had toppled over onto the children of Hades, Hazel jerked her hand upward.

In front of Ordoa's chariot sprouted a giant limestone rock the size of a car, obviously Hazel's doing.

Ordoa screamed in surprise and swerved to the right in an attempt to avoid crashing. Her chariot tilted on one wheel, threatening to tip, but then it righted itself and she continued down the track. However, her detour gave Percy's team and Thalia's team time to pass her, both crossing the finish line and starting their second lap, closely followed by Ordoa.

As Nico and Hazel struggled to untangle themselves and Arion from their wreck, Ordoa began to pick up speed, now rolling in between the sons of Poseidon's chariot and the children of Zues's chariot.

"Now, Thalia!" Jason shouted as he took the reins from his sister, freeing up her hands. She pointed at the storm above, then down at Ordoa. Out of the sky came a bright white bolt bristling with electricity, which struck down onto the back of Ordoa's chariot. "That's for kidnapping us!" Thalia yelled with a whoop of defiance.

"Elk!" she screeched. "Put the fire out!" The poor nymph hurried to try and snuff out the flame that danced along the chariot's back edge, but he was struggling to do so. The couple's effort slowed their speed as their concentration shifted to the fire.

Percy and Tyson were now in the lead, barreling past the finish line and starting their third and final lap, followed by Thalia and Jason in second and the burning chariot in third.

"They've got it in the bag," Nico commented as he finally stood and helped Hazel up as well. Both first and second place were occupied by the demigods.

As Percy and Tyson neared the finish line and their grant of freedom, Ordoa formed a desperate plan in her head. Holding out her hand, a long spear materialized in her grasp, its tip as sharp as a needle. She hefted the weapon back, then propelled it forward with more force than anyone would've guessed she could.

The spear sailed through the air, whistling as it went, and was heading straight for Blackjack's head. Percy quickly noticed the oncoming missile and, placing one foot on the front edge of the chariot, prepared to block it. A few seconds before the spear would've hit the Pegasus, Percy leapt out into the air and knocked the spear away with Riptide.

The son of Poseidon rolled out and onto the ground just as Tyson pulled over the finish line, followed moments by Thalia and Jason's chariot and finally Ordoa, still trailing fire.

Nico and Hazel, now just having untangled Arion, ran over to meet up with the rest of their group. Ordoa left Elk to deal with the flaming chariot and instead fumed over to where Tyson stood, presently unhitching Blackjack from the chariot.

"Under the terms of our agreement, I must set you free. Goodbye, Cyclops."

Ordoa touched her hand to Tyson's head, causing him to disappear.

"Where'd he go?" Percy immediately asked Ordoa when he'd caught up to the group, covered in sand.

"He's back in Camp Half-Blood, where he belongs," she grumbled. The goddess did a quick head count before declaring, "The next challenge-"

"Wait, wait, hold on," Percy intruppted, holding his hands up in front of him. "What about me? My team won the race. Don't I get sent home too? Annabeth needs my help in Tartarus!"

Ordoa couldn't help but smirk at Percy as she asked, "Did you ever cross the finish line?" Realization poured over Percy as he noticed that he'd joined the group by walking around the track from where he'd tumbled off.

"No."

"Therefore, you never finished the race and technically didn't win alongside Tyson. He was the single person sent home for this challenge, and I plan to let him be the only one ever sent home."


And that's the end of Chapter 4. I hope you all enjoyed it!

Can anyone guess what Hazel and Percy had been thinking about during the proposing of the deal? Hint: It has to do with 50/50 chance gambles...

And now it's thank you time!

Thank you to Guthans, Blacksun12, DaughterofPoseidon12470, percylover123456789, queenyuri, and Angelwings178 for the story favorites, thank you to Pixel kitten, DaughterofPoseidon12470, The Awesome God Apollo, and frozenbranches for the story follows!

Pixel kitten: Thank you! It'll be a few more chapters before the end, so I guess you'll have to wait and see ;) .

Guthans: Thank you for the advice, and I'm glad I could make you laugh! As you know now, Ordoa can easily send people back to where they came from, so that solves the problem of getting home. However, what if not everybody can win a challenge? Then they'll definitely be in a predicament, won't they? I guess only time will tell...

Jamieandtj: Thanks! I appreciate the feedback very much.

DaughterofPoseidon12470: Thank you!

8EternallyMortal8: Percy is still trying to rejoin his girlfriend, but at least now there's a discovered way, right? If only he had won that challenge...oh well ;) .

Again, thank you for your patience in waiting for this chapter to come out! As I said earlier, there will be weekly updates on the weekends, so stay tuned and don't forget to read, review, favorite, and/or follow!

-8DemigodRunner8