Chapter 36: Danger Zone
The trek up the mountain, even to someone as in such good physical condition as August, took a good two hours to complete. The battle didn't let up in the slightest as August looked down upon the rush of bodies below her on the way up, and she could only hope that everything was going ok. She should have been exhausted by the time she reached the top, but her adrenaline made her feel otherwise.
The top of the mountain was a hot, bubbling caldera, and though it had stopped spewing ash and lava in the air, it was still hot and menacing. August thanked Hephaestus for the armor, as she knew even she would be cooked alive if she were to have gone in without it.
"You called?" She yelled at the crater, hoping to settle the score early. As she watched for any signs of life, the ooze started bubbling and shifting, a large form shaping out of it. By the time it was done forming, a very large, muscular man covered in yellow flames sat upon a throne of volcanic glass, looking at August condescendingly. He sat at about ten feet high, though August expected that he could be any size he wanted depending on his mood. This was Hyperion. This was her challenger.
"I expected a hero and they send me this?" He scoffed, sizing August up and down like a piece of meat.
"Don't be too hasty to judge me. It could be the last thing you ever do." August answered, taking a step forward.
Hyperion gave an annoyed laugh. "You plan to kill me?"
"I plan to put you back where you belong!" August yelled, preparing to jump into battle. Before she could, Hyperion flicked his wrist, sending up a wall of lava that blocked her path.
"Not so fast, half-blood. I have a bargain I'd like to make with you." Hyperion said surprisingly calmly.
"I don't make bargains with Titans." August growled back.
Once again, Hyperion laughed. "I didn't give you that option." The wall of lava settled back down before he continued. "I don't feel like fighting you, half-blood, namely because you're an easy kill, as are all of your friends. It's boring and pointless with little reward for me. So instead of that, I have an option for you to where we can just avoid this whole thing. I go away, like you want me to, you and your camps go home alive, and we all live happily ever after."
"I'm not taking any options of yours, no matter what." August finalized.
The lava around the two of them bubbled angrily. "Then I send several hundred tons of lava down to your little army, desecrating everyone and everything."
"You really think you stand a chance against two whole armies of angry demigods?" August asked, thinking Hyperion crazy.
"Yes, yes I do. You see your people were trained to fight warriors and monsters. They weren't trained to fight a natural substance that burns literally everything in its path. Certainly not tons of it. Even with that nuisance of a son Poseidon had, you still don't stand a chance." Hyperion explained, the lava still bubbling around August like its own living thing. August remained silent, not sure how to react. "Here are your options. One, I send this caldera down upon your camps faster than you can prepare for it, destroying everything, afterwards I take the sun as my own and reclaim my rightful place in Olympus. Or, two, you bring me a maiden of my own."
"A maiden? Like a girl?" August asked, unsure why he couldn't just go send one of his minions to find a girl for him.
Hyperion let out another annoyed chuckle before continuing. "I don't want just any maiden, Augustine." Her name came out like a curse word more than a name. He leaned forward in his thrown, looking at her evilly. "The one I want is young, graceful, and pure. You don't find maidens like her just anywhere." He mused.
"Why not get her yourself if it matters that much? I'm not going to bring anyone to you just so you can break them." August said, annoyed.
"Oh my dear Augustine. You don't understand do you?" Hyperion asked. Once again, August remained silent. "The maiden I want isn't so simple to just get a hold of. Because, you see Augustine, the maiden I want happens to already belong to someone." He laughed again, giving August a look between amusement and shear disdain. "Well, not just someone. The maiden I want happens to belong to you."
August's heart stopped, her head reeling. No. Not Ariadne. Not her. Anyone but her. August pleaded silently to any God that would listen. She tried to remain stoic as to not show Hyperion just how much what he just said bothered her. "You don't want her." August whispered. "There are thousands of other maidens out there that are just as good if not better, you don't want her."
Hyperion gave his signature chuckle. "Oh yes I do. And you, Augustine of Apollo, are going to bring her to me." The caldera bubbled menacingly, letting August know that she was running out of time and options.
August felt too many things at once to keep calm. First, there was anger; how dare he threaten the well being of her friends, no, family to her face. Then, there was fear. He wasn't wrong, as lava was not exactly something that you could fight off like a giant or a griffon. Her camps wouldn't be able to get off the island fast enough if he decided to send the lava down. Then, her protective instincts. The maiden he wanted was none other than the girl who had shown her nothing but patience, kindness, acceptance, and love for the past several weeks, and Hyperion was not about to take her away for his own sick gain. The emotions built up into a dangerous Molotov cocktail inside of her, which finally hit in the pit of her stomach and exploded into the final emotions that over took everything; rage.
Extending Helios and charging up her heat, August responded the only way she knew how. "I'll take the third option." She pointed the dagger right at Hyperion. "Kill you." She charged across the lava, and to her surprise, it cooled where she was running. She realized that she was absorbing the heat around her for power, taking the heat from the lava to fuel her own. As she reached Hyperion, she realized that his own flames were also fading the closer she got, and he looked rather surprised about it.
She jumped, higher than she had ever thought she could, and swung directly at his face. Though he moved just before the collision, she still managed to get him right in the eye.
"GAH!" The titan let out a scream right as his reflexes kicked in and smacked August away from him with tremendous force. Enough force to knock her strait off the mountain. As she free fell down to the earth, something caught her right before she hit the rocky side.
"What the- Toli?" August looked down to see the magnificent Pegasus looking back at her while she hung on to his back for dear life. She resituated, looking below her to see that the camps had run out of monsters to fight, but weren't in great shape. "Land where the others are!" August instructed, Toli banking and diving in as told. As she landed, Percy was standing on a rock looking around as the rest of the camps tended to injured soldiers, supplies, war animals, and weapons. He jumped down and ran towards her upon seeing August land.
"Oh thank the gods you made it!" He said as he met her as she dismounted. "I sent Anatolios in for you. You never know what could happen when you're fighting on the side of a mountain."
"Thanks, that was smart. Hyperion literally threw me off the mountain." August grumbled, out of breath. "I need to speak to Ariadne."
"She's over there with Annabeth." Percy pointed to a group of Athenians, both Roman and Greek, standing over an outstretched map of the island. Ariadne was standing behind Annabeth, deep in thought. "Is something wrong?" Percy asked.
"Very. Are there any more monsters coming?" August asked back.
"Probably. They're probably regrouping right now as we speak, just like we are. What's going on?" He responded.
"I'm caught between a rock and a hard place." August said, walking over towards the group. As she approached, Ariadne caught site of her and ran over.
"What happened? Are you ok?" She asked, looking worried as usual.
"Er… something came up." August said, unsure of how to bring up her current predicament.
"Are you feeling ok? You're burning up." Ariadne asked, almost ignoring August's question as she felt her forehead.
"Don't worry about that now, let's just go somewhere we can talk." August said, gesturing down the beach. Ariadne nodded and followed her. They walked in silence until they were out of earshot.
"August, you look like you've been sentenced to death." Ariadne finally said once August took a seat on some rocks on the shore. Ariadne sat down next to her.
"I need you to get off the island." August said directly.
"What?" Ariadne looked shocked at what she just heard. "August what's going on?"
"Hyperion did what Annabeth said he'd do, and tried to make a bargain with me." August started.
"Then don't take the options." Ariadne said cutting her off.
"He didn't give me that as an option." August responded, frustrated.
"What do you mean?" Ariadne asked, now looking scared.
"He's literally sitting on hundreds of tons of lava in this huge caldera on top of that mountain, and he threatened to send all of it down faster than we can get off the island if I don't…" August trailed off, unsure of how to finish.
"If you don't what?" Ariadne asked, trying to get the answers out of August before she broke down.
"He asked for a maiden." August shot out.
"That's disgusting." Ariadne said in a deadpan manner. "But not unusual. Why can't he get his minions to do it?"
"He asked for you." August finished, a few stray tears slipping down her face. Ariadne's expression went pale and mortified.
"You couldn't have possibly said yes." Ariadne whispered after several seconds of silence, looking like she may faint.
"Of course I didn't! I would never do anything like that to you ever. I love you!" August said, taking Ariadne's hand in hers. "But the second he sees us trying to move ourselves off the island, we're all literally toast."
Ariadne nodded and sat in silence for a few more seconds, thinking. "What if we played along?" She asked, looking at August with a thoughtful expression.
"That's too dangerous. I'm not putting you in that position." August answered, shaking her head.
"If we did it right, we could win." Ariadne persuaded.
"Unless you've got a fool proof plan, I refuse to let you do this." August said, not willing to compromise Ariadne's safety.
"Just listen, OK? You take me up there, we play it cool right? Like I'm really going to go through with being his… maiden." Ariadne cringed at the word.
"No." August said sternly.
"August be quiet a second." Ariadne answered back. "Once I get close enough, it will be easy enough for the two of us to ambush him and seal him back inside."
"But once you're there, we're going to have to figure out how to subdue Hyperion's flames." August reminded her.
"Well can't you subside heat like Will can? You could just take away his flames." Ariadne said. August realized now that she had been doing just that inadvertently when she got angry.
"Yes, yes I can. But, not forever." August responded, once again shaking her head in frustration. "We need a way to seal him in the caldera permanently. If I seal the caldera while he's still at full power, he can just heat everything back up and get loose again."
Ariadne nodded and thought for a few more seconds before a look of dawning spread across her face. "The pendant."
"The one Ed has?" August asked, making sure she was on the right track.
"Yes! We can use the pendant to keep his light source, the flames, out! We just need a way to get it around his neck." Ariadne explained.
"If I subdue the flames long enough while you ambush him and get the pendant around his neck, I can cool and seal the caldera for good." August said, putting the pieces together in her head.
"That's it then. Alright, let's go get Ed." Ariadne agreed, helping August up.
"Bring on the heat!" August growled. It was time for some action.
If by some weird alternate universe stretch of the imagination this ever becomes an animated feature, I totally want the voice actor who played Scar to play Hyperion.