~~~~•~~~~~• Piper •~~~~~•~~~~
The rest of the day went as normal as it could for a flying war ship. After they had lunch, Leo went back to navigating. Piper and Jason tried to teach Allie a little sword fighting, and she was surprisingly good. She even pinned Jason once (which Piper didn't like too much). "How are you so good?" He looked confused.
She smiled. "I did some fencing a few years back."
"Some?" Jason said, still confused.
"More or less."
They practiced until the dinner bell rang. Allie was very amused with the fact that the plates and cups filled themselves. She had a whole steak with orange soda.
After dinner, Jason and Piper hung out on deck with Leo.
That night, they had to go through the issue of Mrs. Sass meets Coach Hedge.
"You asleep yet? You better!" He banged his baseball bat on the wall. After about 15 minutes of that, Allie yelled, "Shut up!"
"Excuse me young lady?" Coach yelled back.
She must have gone out into the hallway, because her voice sounded clearer. "You heard me, if you want me to sleep then shut up!"
Piper was amazed, because she had never seen anyone stand up to the old goat. She went into the hallway, and they where arguing. Hedge raised his baseball bat. She saw the others at their doors, watching. Leo looked amused, and Frank looked terrified.
"Hey!" She yelled. "How about we all just shut up and go to sleep?" She put some charmspeak into her voice so they would obey.
"I will shut up and go to sleep." Hedge said.
"Thank you," Allie said. "I will too."
When Hedge closed his door, Leo high-fived her.
When Piper finally got to sleep, she had demigod dreams, which where never good. She dreamed that she was back in Serbia. A woman was leaning against a tree. "Oh good! You're finally here!" She said. Piper realized it was her mother. Her face shifted, looking even more beautiful every time it did, like usual. She was wearing a pink skirt that went just above her knees, and a black tank top. She looked glamorous, like usual.
"What do you need?" Piper asked, unenthusiastically.
"I just want to talk with my daughter!" She said. Piper doubted that.
"What about?" Piper asked.
"Oh, well, how is the quest going?"
"Um well Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, so what do you think?"
"Oh, but you have contacted them, right?"
"How'd you know?" Piper asked. Then she realized. "You are doing this. Did you send Allie too?"
"Maybe," she said.
"But why?"
"What are most of my actions for? Love of course!" She smiled.
"Love?" Piper was confused.
"Well, it also has to do with an agreement with Hera, but that's not the point."
"Hera? But what does Allie have to do with-"
"Oh but that doesn't matter! The point is that Leo will finally find love!"
"Leo? What?!"
"Yes! Yes, but don't tell them! They will get awkward and it just won't work!"
"Um… ok? I won't but I have to tell them about Percy and Annabeth,"
"Oh, ok but you can't tell about Leo and Allie! It will ruin everything! I don't have much more time to talk. You won't be able to contact Percy and Annabeth many more times, so here you go!" Aphrodite said excitedly.
"Wait wha-" but her dream shifted before she could say anything.
She saw Percy and Annabeth sitting together on a rock, catching their breath. They where both dirty and had bruises and cuts all over themselves. There where horrible scenes around them. They just looked at each other, as if they where trying not to see what was going on around them. "Percy! Annabeth!" Piper tried yelling.
They're eyes shot up, "did you hear that?" Percy asked.
"Yeah, was that… Piper?"
"Yes! It's me! Oh thank the gods I can talk to you! Are you ok? Do you have any ambrosia or, like, food?"
"Oh gods! It is you! I thought I finally lost it!" Annabeth was relieved. "We aren't dead yet, so that's good. The monsters are hard to fight, since they can't die down here."
"We a few slices of pizza and a bag of chips, and two bottles of water. And we have like, two and a half bags of ambrosia, and half a canteen of nectar." Percy confirmed.
"Save your food!" Piper said. "Only eat if you think you are about to starve. Drink a small amount of water whenever you need to. We are going to be at the doors of death in about two and a half days. Make sure you stay alive! Please." She didn't want to loose them. She couldn't bear to.
"We've been trying to save the food. We have used the ambrosia, but we just get cut up more from fighting and running from monsters. We decided to save it for when we really need it." Annabeth said.
"Good! Do that! We probably don't have much time. My mother has been doing this to us, but I'm not complaining." Piper told them.
"Aphrodite? But… why?" Percy asked.
"She said because of love. She wants your love to survive, and this is apparently how she's making it happen. She also said something about a deal with Hera, but she didn't explain anything."
"Since we don't have much time, I need to show you something. On Daedleus' laptop, we found something that could navigate."
"Yeah, Nico saw in a dream."
Annabeth blinked. "He's dreaming about us too?"
"Yeah, apparently he saw you using Arachne's spider webs to defeat a monster and then take out the laptop. There was a app or something that was like a map. He said that he tried to talk to you but it didn't work."
"Then why can we hear you now?"
"I don't know… I guess Aphrodite wanted us to be able to talk."
"About what?"
"I don't know, maybe-"
Then she heard her mother say in her head running out of time!
"We don't have much time. How close are you to the doors of death?"
Annabeth took out her laptop. She tapped on the keyboard a few times. "We'll be there in about two and a half days if we hurry."
"Perfect! Then you'll have to hurry."
Suddenly, it seemed like the whole world was rumbling. Percy and Annabeth looked around. Piper heard laughing.
"Foolish demigods." She heard the sleepy voice of Gaea say.
She woke up with a start. "Percy! Annabeth!"
Hazel was standing in the door. "What?"
"I talked to Percy and Annabeth in my dream!" Piper said.
