Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, series, characters, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile - I actually had this chapter almost finished for awhile, but my life got very hectic with an audition/interview for school that was literally the only thing I could focus on. But since that is over, here I am! So hopefully I will be back on a somewhat normal uploading schedule. Also, who's finished The Burning Maze? I sure haven't. I have it, but I honestly have not finished a single book this year and that actually disturbs me to my core. Anyways, I'm rambling, I hope you like the chapter! Leave me a review to let me know what you think!

Chapter Twenty-Five
The Show Must Go On

"Oh the taste of your lips, I'm on a ride,
You're toxic I'm slipping under,
With a taste of a poison paradise,
I'm addicted to you,
Don't you know that you're toxic?"

- "Toxic" by Britney Spears

Percy and I were jogging back but surprisingly I was the one who had to stop for a minute. I couldn't see straight, I couldn't breathe and tears were streaming down my face. I ended up running into one of the tiny little alleys and collapsing on the ground.

"Whoa, Andee," Percy said, veering off to the side in front of me.

"She's all alone," I cried. "She's all alone and I can't feel her and I can't be there for her. What if she gets hurt? No one will know where she is to help her. What if she dies?"

"She won't," Percy said, kneeling beside me. "She's Annabeth. She is wickedly smart, and we both know her probably better than we know ourselves. I believe in her fully and I know you do too, so we just have to keep believing and have faith in her."

I nodded, wiping at my eyes with the heels of my hands. "We have to keep going. Nico needs us too."

"Tiberinus said we have less time than we thought – what does that mean?" Percy asked.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," I said as he helped me to my feet and we continued back to the ship, speeding up to a run. If we had less time than we thought, we needed to make every second count. When we got back to the Argo, it was still only Jason and Piper there, having a picnic with a purple birthday cake. "Not a great time for picnics, guys. Happy birthday, though, Jason. I'll get you a gift if we survive this thing."

"Thanks," he said, as he and Piper hastily packed it all up. When they had come back from their meeting with Hercules, they had brought back this magical cornucopia that produced endless amounts of food. Handy if you were starving, or if you needed to make a quick getaway and were out of literally any other option. "How'd it go?"

"Not great," Percy said. "I'm not saying Annabeth was kidnapped by Gregory Peck/Tiberinus and Audrey Hepburn, but…you know, I don't actually know where I was going with that."

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"It's only two o'clock, there's still another hour until our rendezvous time," Piper said.

"We may not have as much time as we thought we did," Percy said. "Tiberinus said you could see where Nico was in your knife."

"It doesn't really work like that –"

"Piper, you need to check," I said sternly. She pulled out Katroptis and we all gathered around, looking at the images appearing. The first image that appeared showed the Romans setting themselves up in an apartment overlooking Central Park. Reyna was pacing near the windows, a troubled expression on her face while Octavian and the other Romans poured over a map, making plans.

"That's a map of Long Island," Percy said darkly.

"They're scouting the territory and discussing invasion routes," Jason added.

Could this day get any worse?

The image changed to show the Forum, zooming in on one side, going down a set of stairs, through a modern gate with a padlock, through the doorway, down a stairwell and then showed us two giants in gladiator armor sitting on praetor-like thrones, toasting each other with golden goblets like they'd already won. Between them was a large bronze jar. The image zoomed in and Nico was curled up in a ball inside, lifeless and unmoving, all the pomegranate seeds eaten.

"It's too late," Jason said softly.

"No," Percy said immediately. "Maybe he went into a deeper trance to buy time. We can't give up hope – Nico is a strong kid, but we have to get there fast. We have to leave now and just hope that the others have already made it there."

I nodded my agreement, quickly arming myself before we left the Argo. Hopefully it would be safe here while we were gone. We all sprinted towards the Forum, going at full speed and almost ran into Leo, Hazel and Frank.

"Hola! I take it our plans have changed," Leo said.

"Yup," I said. "Did you find him?"

"Yes," Hazel said. "Well, we found where they're holding him and we found a way in. We were lucky we weren't found, but…it doesn't look good."

"We know, we saw him."

Frank led the way and brought us to a small drainage pipe. It smelled great, in case you were wondering. Absolutely great.

We all got in and crawled through and it eventually opened into a wider tunnel that allowed us to all stand. It turned off and Frank stood at the turn, looked around the corner before signaling for us to follow. We came up to an area that looked like a parking garage crowded with a bunch of stuff. The farther in we got, the more odd gear we saw. There were huge gears and pulley systems that raised and lowered parts of the floor, water that flowed through open trenches, powering water-wheels and hamster wheels holding hellhounds. Cages holding live animals were suspended from the ceiling. Lions, zebras, hyenas, even a hydra. Bronze and leather conveyor belts slowly moved throughout with weapons and armor lying on top of it.

"You know what this looks like?" Leo asked me quietly.

It took me a few moments but I could see where it was heading. "A theatre. Or at least, the workings of a theatre." Looking at Leo, I could see the cogs turning in his head. "You've got a plan."

"Be ready to improvise, Princess." Leo was probably the best improviser I knew and whatever his idea was, it was bound to be good. We bumped fists and continued forward.

When we reached the actual room, the two thrones on the dais were empty, leaving just the bronze jar sitting there. "This is too easy," Frank said.

"Of course it is," Percy said.

"We don't have any other choice," Hazel said, "We have to save Nico."

"Yes we do," I agreed.

As we continued our way forward, we had to jump over the trenches, duck under the cages of the captured wolves (who didn't look like they were in a very good state of mind), and we were about halfway to the bronze jar when one of the platforms started to lower.

On it was an 'actor' posed with one hand raised in the air. It was actually Ephialtes, who was small for a giant, standing at only twelve feet tall. He had this wild purple-hair braided with gold and silver coins, and was wearing a disgusting and disturbing Hawaiian shirt with a print of dying heroes, torture and scenes of lions eating slaves. Whatever happened to a nice floral print? He also had on white jeans (I guess there weren't many options to pair with a shirt like that), leather sandals that held that curved snakeheads that were his feet, and a ten foot spear strapped to his back.

That's literally two inches less than two of me.

"At last! It's so good to finally see you all!" Ephialtes said with a sweeping gesture. "You're just in time for the main event!"

Our group immediately closed ranks, and somehow I was now at the front of the group. Well then.

"Well, we're here. Let our friend go," Percy said immediately.

"Of course, but I think he's past his expiration date," Ephialtes said. I heard Hazel's sharp intake of breath. She would know if he was actually dead, though, and she hadn't said he was yet. So there was still time. "Otis, where are thou?"

Another platform came down, revealing who I assumed to be Otis, wearing a skin-tight baby blue leotard that really wouldn't do justice to any body type, and dance slippers with the toes cut off to make room for his snake feet. He had a diamond tiara nestled in his green hair was braided with firecrackers, but he looked uncomfortable (understandable given his current fashion disaster) and depressed. He still gave a decent dancer's bow, which gave us a nice view of the huge spear on his back. "What are you wearing?"

"I didn't want to wear the gladiator outfit," Otis said. "I still think ballet would be perfect while Armageddon is going on. I even have some extra costumes –"

"No!" Ephialtes snapped.

"Actually, your brother might be on to something," Leo cut in, giving me a look. I immediately reached into my bag, knowing where he was going. "Do you know who you're standing in the presence of? This is Andee le Fay! She is a singer and songwriter extraordinaire, she's performed in front of millions of people all over the world, she's currently a student at the Julliard School in their Triple Threat program – she can act, sing and dance. She's even the daughter of Avalon le Fay – you may not have heard of her, but she's an exquisite dancer, isn't that right, Andee?"

"It is, and I definitely got those genes," I said as I finished tying up the laces on my pointe shoes. I mean, my shorts and t-shirt didn't really fit with the ballet shoes, but I'd make it work.

"Andee, why don't you show Otis and Ephialtes a quick little number?" Leo asked and I grinned, stepping away from the group up to where Leo was now. I stepped onto the tips of my toes and started a short routine filled with pirouettes, jetés, and all sorts of other turns, leaps and a few acrobatics as well to sell it.

Otis was in absolute awe, which was kind of funny. Even Ephialtes seemed impressed.

When I finished and did my own little bow. "But you know," Leo started, and I knew immediately to start untying my shoes to get ready for something bigger, "if you want to have a great show for the apocalypse, you want to go for more of a triple threat type of deal."

"What do you mean?" Ephialtes said.

"Well, consider this – Apollo is basically the king of music and art, which would make Andee the Princess of Pop. That's what the media calls her, anyways. If you want a really good number, something that will be remembered for eons, you've got to have it all. Lights, costumes, music, everything! You know what? Let Andee show you. She's the princess, after all. Give us like, five minutes to prepare, will you?"

They mumbled their agreement and we all huddled.

"Hazel, Piper, how are you with singing?" I asked.

"I mean, I can," Hazel said.

"Piper has a really beautiful voice," Jason said, and Piper gave him a look.

"Awesome, I'm going to cast an enchantment on you guys that we use in the Apollo cabin when we don't have time to learn someone's number," I said. "And sometimes to prank people, but you know, it has some real life applications."

"What are we thinking here as far as the number goes?" Leo asked.

"Let's go full Britney."

"Aww yeah!" Leo pumped his fist in the air in excitement. I had taught him well.

"Do you know any way to change outfits?" I asked Piper. "Some sort of Aphrodite trick?"

She sighed like she was annoyed that she did. "Yeah, I do."

"Great. So while we do that," I said, "Frank, Percy, and Jason, you guys will go get Nico and try to get him out of harm's way." I dug through my bag and gave them a syringe of my blood I had prepared. "This should help give him a little strength. Give it to him right away. Everyone clear?"

Everyone nodded. Piper did her thing quickly and I was suddenly in a cute gold bodysuit very similar to what I'd wear on stage, while she and Hazel were in shorter black dresses with gold accents. I held my hands in front of them, said the Ancient Greek phrase that would have them perform according to the number in my head. And we were going acapella.

We started singing and dancing, keeping the attention of the giants on us while Jason, Percy, and Jason tried to subtly make their way towards the jar. Leo stayed with us, acting like he was my 'manager' and at one part, I might have enchanted him to do this weird throat sound thing as a transition thing in the song, just because it was kind of funny.

Any time it looked like Ephialtes was losing interest, I'd step it up and do something even grander to keep his attention. As we got to the end of the song, I made eye contact with the boys and tried to make a dance move that also double as 'MOVE FASTER' but I wasn't sure it registered. Men didn't always clue in to the more subtle things.

Otis didn't catch on to what was happening, but Ephialtes eventually did and boy was he mad. "CUT!" Ephialtes shouted and everyone – including the boys, who had just freed Nico from the jar – stopped. I looked and could see Nico's chest rise just a fraction and felt a small piece of my stress go away. He was alive, so we had succeeded at one part.

"You know, we only need two of you alive," Ephialtes said. "That's all Gaea wants – one boy, one girl. The rest of you, I think we'll hang you up there, kill you slowly so that all the gods and the mortals can watch. But that will be just the start! Back in the old days, the games went on for days and weeks. But our show – the destruction of Rome – will go on for a month before Gaea awakens!"

"A month?" Jason said, looking at me. "One month, and then Gaea's going to wake up?"

"Yes, yes, apparently August First is the best day to destroy all of humanity, according to the Earth Mother. But that's not important!"

"It sounds like you're just the opening act to me," I said, trying to egg them on.

"Opening act?" Ephialtes said in a dark, angry voice. "We're going to release wild animals and starving monsters into the streets! Our special effects team will make fire and earthquakes, sinkholes and volcanoes! Ghosts will run rampant through the streets!"

"The focus groups said ghosts won't work," Otis said. "They already said it won't pull ratings on Hephaestus-TV."

Oh my gods.

"Yeah, so definitely the opening act," Percy said, catching on to my train of thought, him and Jason making his way over to where the girls and I were. Leo and Frank were still going to try to get Nico out of the way.

"And not even the prime opening act. You guys would be the first opening act that goes on for like, fifteen minutes, just to get the crowd kind of warmed up for the good opening act," I said.

"This hypogeum can make anything work!" Ephialtes said, storming over to a big control panel with a map hanging over top of it.

"Go with the others and get the ship. We're going to need to get out of here fast," I told Hazel quietly and she was able to quietly separate from our group as Ephialtes started ranting.

"- automaton gladiators to battle the tourists at the Trevi Fountains, the Tiber River will flood over to reenact a naval battle right in the Piazza Navona! You should appreciate that one, Percy Jackson!"

"You know, I think letting us go is probably a better idea," Percy said.

"The show must go on, demigods! And we can't change the choreography now – it's too close to show time!"

"And what if we refuse to cooperate?" Jason asked.

"Well, you can't kill us – you have no gods with you and that's the only way you could possibly hope to win against us. So really, it's much more reasonable for you all to die. And painfully."

"Well, we do have a three-quarter blood," Piper said. "I would say that's pretty darn close to a god."

"I have to agree with that," I said with an overly confident smile. I can assure you that that confidence was very fake. I knew this was a losing battle, whether my friends did or not. We needed a god and the chances of one showing up to help was very unlikely.

"Combat time?" Percy asked.

"Oh hell yeah," Jason said, and as the four of us leapt bravely into battle, the two giants disappearing in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared on opposite sides of the room, and everyone just went at it. Percy and I both went after Ephialtes while Jason and Piper went for Otis. A trap was sprung immediately at Percy and separated him from the rest of us, and started closing in him, forcing him to jump and latch onto the cage of a hydra. He had to drop off and Ephialtes took this as an opportunity to release the hydra early.

Percy looked between the hydra and Ephialtes.

"Get the hydra, I'll deal with him," I said, taking a moment to make sure he was doing what I told him to before starting on my own mission – take down Ephialtes. Or at least, inconvenience him until we could figure out what to do. "Come and get me, you untalented hack!"

That pissed him off. I couldn't pay attention to much else except trying to keep him occupied, but it was a little hard when all I could do was try to stop his different machines from working. He was cranking the conveyor belts up to full speed and opening the different animal cages, laughing maniacally as I shot arrows to try to jam the conveyor belts. Thankfully my arrows were Olympian gold and wouldn't break, not matter how much pressure was applied.

"Take cover!" I barely heard before a loud explosion rocked the building. A bunch of small projectiles started going off after, which started snapping more cages off their chains. A smaller bomb went off Ephialtes's head, and unfortunately only knocked him off his feet. The control board didn't even get damaged.

A bunch of sandbags fell from the ceiling across the room, one of them catching Piper and pinning her to the ground. Jason, in all his Disney Prince glory, immediately ran to her, seemingly forgetting about the giant he had been fighting, who was now aiming at Jason's back.

"JASON!" I yelled.

Jason, of course, had fast reflexes. He rolled, and as the point of Otis' spear soared over him, Jason summoned a gust of wind and sent the weapon back across the room, spearing Ephialtes through the side just as he was starting to stand.

"OTIS!" Ephialtes shouted as he stumbled, starting to turn to dust. "STOP KILLING ME!"

"It wasn't me this time!"

Whatever explosive Percy had used fired off again, this time hitting the ceiling. Thankfully luck was on our side this time, and it hit the ceiling right above Otis which fell and flattened him, which would hopefully give us a few minutes to regroup.

I ran to Piper, and as soon as I saw her arm, I knew she wouldn't be able to fight anymore. It was bent at such a weird angle, and even though she insisted she was fine, you could hear the pain in her voice. I knelt down to start healing her when I noticed Ephialtes already reforming. The rubble shifted and Otis popped out, his head slightly deformed.

Well, that few minutes turned into a few seconds and we hadn't done anything.

"Percy! Get the controls!" I shouted, and Percy was on his feet, running towards the switchboard and uncapping Riptide. He slashed the sword across the top, ripping the controls right off making the machine spark in protest before dying.

"NO!" Ephialtes cried. "You've ruined the show! How am I supposed to do my effects now?"

Percy was too slow to turn and Ephialtes swung his spear at him, smacking him across the chest, which made him fall to his knees. Jason ran over to him, with Otis close behind. I stayed beside Piper, who was still lying on the floor, unable to get up.

I had to make a decision. Let Jason and Percy fight and possibly be killed, or heal Piper so that we can all be back in the fight. The time it would take to heal Piper could cost Jason and Percy their lives. It was an impossible choice that I didn't want to make.

I looked between the boys and Piper before taking a deep breath and placing my hands on Piper's shoulder, starting to sing one of my dad's hymns, calling on his power to heal her. But something else happened - while singing, I felt an urge and changed the song, asking for his help.

"Did someone ask for a god?"

Ask and ye shall receive, apparently.

"This is…this is impossible," Ephialtes stuttered, holding his spear in front of him. "Apollo?"

"Dad," I said with a breath of relief. Piper looked just as relieved as I did.

"Anything's possible, my dear friend. And someone told me there was a show, so of course I had to attend! I'm not the god of music for nothing!"

"You gods are doomed!" Ephialtes spat at him. "Be gone in the name of Gaea!"

My dad just strolled through the ruined sets, taking it all in and ignoring Ephialtes. "These are so cheap and tacky and…boring. You can't just buy your set pieces from the drachma store, Ephialtes. I mean, honestly, there's just no sense of style."

"STYLE?!" Ephialtes roared. "I have mountains of style! I define style! I…I…!"

"My brother oozes style!" Otis added.

"Thank you," Ephialtes said with a gesture to his brother.

"Have you guys gotten shorter?" my dad asked, and I could not stop myself from grinning. My dad may write awful haikus, but he was a champ at dragging people.

"I'm tall enough to destroy you!" Ephialtes said, and you could practically hear his blood boiling. "You gods always hide behind your mortal heroes, trusting the fate of Olympus to the likes of these." He sneered at Percy.

"Can we kill them already, Lord Apollo?" Percy asked.

"You know, I would love to, but this just isn't a good setting," my dad said. "Andee, my precious daughter, join me." I walked over to my dad and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "What do you think?"

"If we're going to destroy them, we really should show them how a spectacle is done."

"That's my girl."

The ceiling opened up and the floor began to rise. I could hear the roar of a crowd above us and as we came to the surface, I realized we were in the Colosseum.

Dad did have a flair for the dramatic.

The giants' special effects machines must have been going into overdrive, fixing the bleachers to look like they were gleaming white and brand new, a red and gold canopy draped over to provide shade, and a crowd of Lares cheering for the fight to start. Piper was now in the stands, with a nymph in a nurse's costume tending to her injuries.

"Now this is a show!" my dad said, and all the Lares jumped to their feet, cheering and applauding. Otis and Ephialtes threw an enormous plaster mountain at him, and while he just dissolved and re-dissolved somewhere else, we all had to run to avoid getting hit.

"Dad and I need to shoot each giant in the eyes like my dad did back in the day with Hercules, so we need them separated and we need to be able to hit them simultaneously – timing has be perfect. What's going to be the best way to do this?"

"I'll take Otis again?" Jason said to Percy. "Or do you want to switch?"

Percy looked like he was in deep thought for a moment before saying, "No. We attack together. Otis first, because he's weaker. We'll take him out as quickly as possible and then move to Ephialtes."

"Ephialtes isn't going to just stand around and wait while we kill his brother."

"Well, there's a good wind today. And there's some water pipes running under the arena," Percy said.

I knew immediately what Percy was planning. "That's actually brilliant." Percy beamed at me and I had to hide my smile. He was really cute sometimes… "Let's go!"

The boys moved ahead and started the attack while I moved to be with my father, notching an arrow on my bow and aiming at Otis. "You go left, I'll go right," dad said and I nodded, trying to get a lock on my target. It didn't take long for the boys to get him cornered in a whirlpool of water and wind. "Got a lock?" With a nod, we both fired and Otis exploded into a pile of dust.

Ephialtes bellowed in rage, and ran forward going hand-to-hand with Jason and Percy. No matter what they did, Ephialtes was unfazed. Jason shot lightning down – Ephialtes just caught it in his spear. Percy cut his spear in half – didn't matter. He just knocked him over with the other end, making him land hard on his sword arm. Jason tried to take advantage but it didn't work – Ephialtes parried right away and cut a thin line down Jason's chest, stunning him before Ephialtes kicked him backwards.

Ephialtes was standing over the two of them, grinning. "It's time for you to suffer."

I couldn't watch this. I had to do something.

But before even I knew what was happening, Percy said, "Actually, you should look behind you."

Ephialtes turned to see dad standing right behind him and he waved before we shot him in the eyes from either side, the giant disintegrating in front of us just as the Argo II extended its landing gear and settled in the arena. As they helped Piper and the now extremely tired boys onto the ship, my dad pulled me away from the others.

"How are you doing, Andromeda?" my dad asked seriously.

"I'm holding it together," I said. "Thank you for coming. I didn't know…well, I didn't know if we'd make it out of here."

"It's only going to get harder from here," he said.

"I know," I said quietly.

"You are more than strong enough to do this, I believe in you," my dad said before giving me a hug, squeezing me tighter than he had probably ever done before. "And so you know, the best place to break through is the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building."

"What?" I said just as he disappeared and I felt a snapping sensation in my leg. I stopped myself from crying out, but when I looked down, my leg was fine. I started panicking – wherever Annabeth was, she was hurt.

"Andee, are you okay?" Percy asked when I came onboard. He looked awful. He was had a couple cuts on his face and he looked dead tired. He needed some ambrosia and nectar, at the very least.

"We need to set sail to the Emmanuel Building," I said to him, before shouting, "Leo! Set sail for the Emmanuel Building!"

"What's that?" Leo asked. "Better yet, where's that?"

"I don't know, but it's where Annabeth is going to come through," I said. "Find it. I have patients I have to attend to."

"We need to get on board and get sailing now," I said, ushering everyone board. "Set sail for the Emmanuel Building."

"What's that?" Leo asked. "Better yet, where's that?"

"I don't know, but it's where Annabeth is going to come through," I said. "Find it. I have patients I have to attend to."