DISCLAIMER: Uncle Rick – is that what people call him now? – still owns PJatO/HoO, guys. You know he does because Hazel is in it.

REVIEW RESPONSES:

Lara of Hecate – Nyx: I responded in PM for the sake of time.

Sydy – Nyx: Thanks. :/ Hopefully I'll deserve that comment again soon.

oOo

Khione screeched as the knives landed, then was cut off as the last plunged into her throat. A dozen bullets of ice came flying at Nico as she reeled.

He and Leo, seeing an advantage, both lunged. One admittedly slower than the other as ice was transformed to liquid.

Stygian iron raked across her back. Not a moment later, through her arm. He darted back across to my side, and for a moment I thought it was an odd way to hold a sword – then I saw that as he retreated, he was tearing her shoulder, too.

Like a flag in wind, he whipped around and drove Mνήμη past her thigh. Then he was gone again.

I tore my gaze from them for a moment to swipe at a werewolf. Then I turned to see Hunter though the madness, to see what had happened to one of my close ties here in the chaos-

She was still casting. The demons had vanished.

I dodged around Piper and glimpsed Nico's fight again – he had leapt back, stalking for a new angle, and Leo had swooped in with heavy hammers ready. There was that stupid, wide grin on his face as he went about driving her back. As eager as hungry flames.

Then I was amid the wolves and Venti again.

Quite suddenly, I realized I was falling behind them.

The exchange of blows was mesmerizing. Khione was liquid, twirling untouched by everything and dancing around as if performing, daggers always too easily placed for it all to be improvisation. Like a graceful snowflake, soft, swift, beautiful, and deadly; not one chance to strike slipped past her sharpened crystals.

So easily, is white frost stained by red.

Around her moved fire. Its tongues submerged the snow, running across grass, radiating from Leo's footsteps. Now, he really was fire – a flaming shape that rushed on and didn't care and burned, burned on, through the snow and crystals that taunted it, drifting just out of reach.

Oh, but the bits of snow he found, he hit hard. Khione was melting bit by bit.

And then there was Nico.

Naught but a shadow, a deadly flash of a silhouette moving through the flame and frost, the familiar, glorious and everlasting fire of a fight driven from his eyes and replaced by a chilling call for bloody death. Death, yes, that was him; never going for an obvious kill, always where you didn't want him to be, horribly accurate…

And eminent.

I backed up quickly to follow, racing the demons that surged at us in waves. Piper was already panting; we were going to be killed really fast if we didn't get help. And once we fell, Nico and Leo would follow.

Then gods knew what'd happen to Hunter and Jason.

My eyes found her again, that link as ancient as time itself. She was on her knees now before the giant column of rock. A low, dreadful rumbling was rolling in my chest.

It was still rising. Slowly, but rising.

Heat brushed my ankles. Leo's fire projection, rippling across the ground in a way so unlike water. I shivered and went where the beat told me to go next.

Behind us, flame and frost and fatality danced. Ice and fire and a slick shadow sliding between the two as if melting into their seams. Quickly. He'd dart past and between them and then behind like nobody's business.

Werewolf. Hunter was still casting. The snow was still writhing madly, but it was around us and not on us – shortly beyond Întuneric's reach, even in javelin form, I could see the largest flakes riling angrily, chasing us…

But we moved. Together. All seven of us.

Seven? Jason was still with Juno. I could see lightning rising from the fountain basin.

But their movement was a signature, and it didn't take me long to figure it out. There was only one person who was so sneaky yet so solid.

As if to confirm the thought, the frost remaining between us and the fountain lifted off the ground, swirling in a mad display of water and snow. With a roar, it crashed down among a horde of demons.

Behind me, every evasive move was abandoned.

A dance that'd been falling leaves became something from a whole other world – the cold hatred and stifling flames seemed to be competing one another, yet their sources working together. Leo was now the one trying to get hits in where he could – Nico was merciless, flashing past again and again, driving Mνήμη with devastating strength into the goddess. She was yelling and slashing with her knives – now and then she got him, but all her ice projectiles were collapsing into water by the time they touched him.

That deathly fury still flooded his eyes, and an equally cold look in hers, and for a moment, those three could have been exchanging blows for all eternity.

Then fires grew higher, all around us, scorching the springing grass. The one deemed Flame yelped in shock and stepped back as Death unleashed strike after strike after strike, leaving a trail of Ichor in his wake. Ichor or sparks where their weapons met.

He wasn't kind about it. Her face, her throat, her chest. You could hear it each time his sword burst something open, and were deafened when she managed to block.

But he was going too fast to be hit now. Otherwise, I'm sure the knives would've taken him – and even so, there was blood sizzling in the flames, true crimson blood – in a heartbeat. The crisp taste of shadows were flooding my tongue as he sliced away.

Around us, the monsters were dying. The very snow seemed to have turned against them. The dust sizzled in it or in its melt and didn't reform.

I turned, searching. All I could see through the flames was Leo, stunned at no longer being the main attack force but firing still nonetheless. I swerved around him and searched for an opening.

Nico stumbled, shoved back by a sudden sword. A blade of ice that'd formed around Khione's left dagger but was melting fast, but only after it'd done its damage. Leo yelled in exhilaration and filled the gap, becoming the main attack force once more. He made fighting a goddess look easy – which it might've been, I guess, if you were on fire and just so happened not to mind…

I didn't see what got him. Just heard him yell. Flames began to die.

But Death wasn't about to be ignored. He had not asked for Leo; he'd demanded for Khione.

I didn't even see him move, even in shadows. He was just there, behind her, swooping down as if he'd taken a flying leap. Mνήμη's tip burst from the center of her chest like a ship's masthead through waves. She screamed and gurgled and flailed for him, but there was a reason he'd jumped high – he just sailed straight over her and the flames, landing in the grass beside me in a menacing crouch, fingers splayed across the mud.

Two more strikes from Leo's hammers, and the goddess was running, Mνήμη still stuck in her.

Nico shot off like a bullet, wrist flicking to one side. From the ground next to Khione launched a wolf skull, nothing but empty sockets and inch-long teeth. She hardly flinched as it clamped down on her arm.

Leo cried out as another burst from between his feet, locking onto her shoulder. Another to her throat. Nico skidded to a stop and twisted his hands sharply, wrenching the skulls and tightening their grip.

Two more, on her legs. We raced on after her, but she'd slowed down, unable to keep a jog.

"FIRE!" Nico yelled. Leo understood. Flames breathed to life across the invincible bones.

Now she screamed. Now she stopped, writhing, twisting, her wounds gaping open gruesomely. I could see ribs and trachea and other things I didn't think would resemble human quite so closely in an immortal. The golden tint didn't make much of a difference.

Nico scowled and spines, clicking as they bent, seemed to emerge both from the ground and the base of each skull. They snapped around her so tightly more wounds were engraved across her body.

The flames crawled with them.

Khione's wild dark eyes took in Nico and Leo. Piper, who was brandishing her dagger. I took a daring step forward with Întuneric. On her other side, a very angry mountain lion was snarling. She made a small sound and jerked, trying desperately to flee.

Somewhere behind us, Hunter screamed.

CR-R-R-RACK!The ground shook as the sound rumbled in my chest.

You're too late, the goddess's cold, caressing voice echoed loudly in my head. I jumped in shock. The Giant King has risen! You should talk less and act more next t-

Nico's fingers twitched. The skull clamped on Khione's throat squeezed harder, Ichor leaking from between its teeth. Or, what was visible of them. That sick light in his eyes said that, as if it were his sword, he could feel it.

Leo's flaming hammers left his fingers, crashing into the goddess. Meat and flesh melted to snow and then to water. In naught but a moment, the remains slumped across the grass, leaving just the tools and skeletons in its wake. Several wolves and one human, I counted. Mνήμη lay stolidly in their midst.

That same stupid grin crossed Leo's face as he turned to Nico. "I'm not even gonna ask what she did to you guys. That was scary as a tornado in downtown Dallas, but she deserved it."

"It's a long story," Nico admitted, bending over to grab his sword, and nearly toppling over as he did it. His skin was red and blistering in places from burns. I grabbed his arm for support only to have him push me away.

C-R-RACK!

The sound was horrible. The pillar of rock – seriously, I swear it'd grown taller – was breaking apart. Pieces crumbled down from its top, revealing something… thrashing…

"It's like an egg," I rasped, watching the pieces get kicked down. "Oh, gods. The Giant King. Khione meant-"

"Yeah. Something about the offspring of Hell," Leo agreed. The flames on him had vanished. "The kind of guy you'd find kicking babies for fun."

Piper nodded wordlessly.

"Guys!"

We turned. Shay ran up, looking almost as exhausted as Nico. Her camouflage clothes were in tatters. But there was still that shaft of gleaming moonlight in her turquoise eyes that only Shay could have.

"The twins?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Hiding. Look, that thing – Hunter tried to stop it, but-"

"HEL-LO! Queen of the Heavens, dying over here!"

"Juno," I muttered. Then, "Juno! Juno! Holy gods, Juno!"

"What?" Shay asked as I bolted for the fountain. Nico staggered along behind me.

"Juno! You can only kill a giant with a combination of demigods and gods!" I yelled, checking the depth of the fountain carefully before leaping in. Three werewolves were there, lunging at Jason. The First Praetor had been reduced to thwacking them away with a broken wooden board.

We finished them quickly and crowded the object he guarded. A bird cage made of roots and vines, with a woman inside. She stood hunched over and covered by a shawl, only her pearly hands laden with heavy jewels visible.

"Did you kill her?" Juno snarled.

"No, she ran away," I said. "We knew she was going to. That's why Nico let Leo have the final blow."

"Then go back and kill her!"

"We can't," I said, resisting the urge to snip rudely. "She ran off. But not before we beat her so bad Nico's half asleep on his feet and she won't dare show her face for at least a year."

"I hope she steps on a Lego," Hunter said wistfully.

Juno hmphed and tapped the cage bars. Behind us, more stone was cracking.

"Uh, guys," Leo warned. "Big ugly dude coming our way. Fast."

"I'm trying!" I yelled, drawing Întuneric on the roots. "If anything's gonna work on plants, it's Stygian iron!"

"Bree," Hunter rasped. "We're out of time."

"Don't you say that," I muttered. "We've come too far."

"ALIVE!"

The giant's roar shook the ground. I closed my eyes and Întuneric began to slow.

"You guys keep working," Jason said. "I can stall."

"Man, you trying to get killed?" Leo snapped.

He gestured to Hera. "We can't free her, we're all gonna be killed."

"No. Move," Hunter snapped, shoving past them. Her hands felt like stone as she jerked me back so hard I fell into the dirt. Nico stood beside me with his eyes on the emerging giant, hands tight on his sword's hilt. "Hera. Queen Lady. Whatever. One god and one demigod kills a giant, right?"

"Excuse me?" the shawl burst incredulously.

"One god and one demigod!" Hunter yelled. "Working together! Correct? The work doesn't have to be split evenly? The god doesn't have to be in true form?"

"No," Juno spat. Literally. Bits of spittle landed on Hunter's face.

Golden eyes turned to me. "Then we don't need Hera free right now. Go with Jason, Bree."

"What-"

"HERA!" the giant boomed. We flinched and turned. He stood over the fountain now, fully emerged – so tall it made me dizzy to merely think about it. Dirt skin and heavy green dreadlocks, littered with broken swords and bronze coins, composed his head. Similar tainted skin and mud and diamond glimmered across his human arms and massive torso. At his waist, deep green scales glimmered. His legs were those of a dragon, the claws alone wide enough to cover a highway.

He towered over us, throwing cool shadows everywhere. He was so huge, so solid, I felt like if I tripped I might fall towards him than towards Gaea. Horribly dead, white eyes fixed on us.

"You know my answer," Hera growled. "Don't you even ask me the question."

"Of course," he chuckled. The voice was low and rumbling, and amused to the point I couldn't decide if he sounded more like Kronos or Khione. "I'd never force you into anything you didn't wish for. No, I'd hate that."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU SWINE!" Juno screamed. "YOU AREN'T EVEN WORTHY TO POUR MY WINE!"

His voice washed over us like suffocating waves once more. As if he could force us to our knees merely by talking. "Frisky little thing. I think I'd like you better dead, anyway."

The vines on the cage thickened, concealing Juno from view.

"No!" Jason yelled, racing forward and almost seeming to trip into the air. No, I'm not kidding – the kid shot about ten feet into the sky, up and out of the fountain. "Back off, Prophyrion! Your fight's with me! Not them!"

There was such fury in his voice, for a moment, I thought he could kill it on his own.

My eyes landed on the cage and I groaned. Întuneric hadn't even made a dent.

"You?" the giant's voice drowned us again. "An appetizer! Who are you – Hermes?"

"Jason Grace," the Praetor said. "Son of Jupiter."

"Oh? So he sacrifices a son to me?" the giant laughed. "It won't work, but it's much appreciated!"

"Bree," Hunter hissed. "Now."

Jason sure looked a lot more confident than I felt. "If you knew who I was," he growled, "you wouldn't be worried about my father."

"Bree," Hunter said. "One god and one demigod. What does that sound like to you?"

And then it clicked.

Well. It did my confidence no good, but it was insane enough that it might just work. And if Jason could act that well, then I could lie twice as good.

"That's right!" I yelled, marching forward. Nico gave a disgruntled noise of shock. "You'd be scared of me!"

Just a bully, just a big bad bully, aren't you? Battle-high doesn't come easily when facing a giant like that, one who could make me a little grease stain on his pinky finger, but I prayed I could bring it upon myself if I insisted.

The giant's white eyes landed on me. "Oh, and I'm guessing you're Athena. Full of hubris."

I laughed, trying to sound like Jason had. "You wish. My Praetor and I are going to send you back to Tartarus – I'll make the portal myself!"

"Fools," he muttered.

"Oh, big bad bully's not afraid?!" I yelled. The anger roiled now – anger, nothing but fear aimed outwards, Ethan used to say – as I stormed forward. "He doesn't know! He doesn't know!" I laughed, and Jason joined in, utterly bewildered.

The giant scowled. "Give me your name, girl, so I know whose head I'll be parading around on this spear."

The spear. I didn't look at it. "Brianna. Just Brianna. I have no last name because I was separated from my parents when young – I must've been deemed too dangerous. I'm the daughter of one demigod and one Olympian. Funny – that's what it takes to defeat you, isn't it? One god and one demigod?"

"Bree," Jason said. "I don't think he's going to believe that."

"Then he's about to be very surprised."

I was sliding now. My brain glazing over. Self-preservation forming. Fear still shook me, but in those moments, I would not call it fear. I'd call it bloodlust.

The giant, having finished his gloating and done with words, slammed his spear into the ground between us.

The impact was so huge I was sent sprawling against the wall of the basin, grinding my teeth as the pain lanced through my body. Prophyrion snarled and swatted at Jason as he took off at an amazing speed, whizzing around the giant's face.

Hunter shot past me, nothing but a golden blur. Then a cougar and a wolf pack. Then a girl in camo.

I bit my tongue and got up, running after them.

Overhead, Prophyrion was scowling as a smalls park of lightning hit one of the metal artifacts in his leaf-colored hair. It jumped from one to the next, like a living hairnet.

Which meant a lot of trouble down on the ground.

I barely made it out of the fountain before having to run, a giant dragon foot dangerously close overhead. That thing movies do when they make big things look slow is a lie – a gale so strong it nearly carried me off fell from the movement, forcing me to grip Întuneric tightly.

It just hummed happily.

"Alright, alright," I told it. "Here we go."

I ran to the nearest toe and, knowing from drakon experience, sliced it through flesh the opposite way of the scales. The only way to get beneath them.

The giant took no notice.

I screamed in fury and added shadows, tentatively calling upon the frustration and the adrenaline. The toe hardly twitched – the movement had me scrambling back for my life.

Then I smiled and did it again.

Orpheus had used my power to create something larger than I'd ever imagined. I recalled it now, the odd mix of wonder and pain, let it harden the magic as if it were only an extension of my sword. Or of my hands.

This giant, this thing that I'd been so afraid of, this thing that'd made me lie to my sisters and feel dread so strong I'd wished he'd come along and end me quickly rather than waiting-

I let him have it.

The victorious weight of each strike pounded in my ears like a pulse. Like the war drums. Each one demanding I move faster.

Before I knew it, I was a shadow. The world was flashing past me in a whirl of shades. I found my way through cool sides and deep crevasses and I saw, in that realm, how massive the demon was.

But that's a lot of dark surface area. Especially since the sun had fallen.

Shadows have no fear of falling, either.

I heard the giant red flame yell as I tore at his face, lashing shadows around his throat. Or at least at it – there was no way I could ever attack something of substantial size all at once. Little things, here and there. But very, very fast.

I loved my shadows.

I stopped to breathe off to the side, where the snow still smothered the ground, and watched the debris I'd knocked loose come crashing down. Hunks of rock the size of small cars had been wedged free but not even made a dent in him. They were coated in odd liquids – oil, green sludge, other mineral things, all mixed in golden Ichor. The slices were much more evident – though they couldn't be deep to him, his odd blood still seeped from beneath. Like mud that'd been squeezed too hard. I'd tried hard to get his eyes, but whatever they were, they were hard – despite a few rapid blinks, I didn't think I'd done much damage.

Not too bad an energy cost. Didn't know how long we'd be at this, but not bad.

I grit my teeth and ran for him again, wondering if I found the right spot on his throat I could make his blood boil effectively.

"Wait!" someone yelled. A strong hand grabbed my collar.

I turned, then looked up. Jason was hovering above me. "You need a lift?"

I blinked. "What?"

He pointed up at the giant. "I can take you up there. I've never done long-distance, but I know I can hold two people at once. We can surround him. Would that help? Or use less energy, maybe? Because if you can kill him, you need to do it fast!"

He was yelling over the winds by that point. Shay was distracted, dancing dangerously beneath the demon's feet, and as a result the Venti were reforming. Swarming around overhead.

Not too far from her, Brook had transformed again, firing arrow after arrow. They bounced off the scales harmlessly. Anonymous had taken on a slower pace than usual.

I watched as one of the wolves – angry things, trying to swarm up the massive feet – was crushed beneath a claw. Even from here, the impact made my teeth jar against themselves.

Seeing the wolf's death, Nico quit sawing at the cage and came tearing for us, sword raised. Moon howled and joined his charge when he blew past her.

"C'mon!" Jason yelled. "We're dying!"

It was only after I took his hand that I realized how tall that giant was.

"Hold out your hands!" Jason yelled as we shot up on an invisible elevator. "Peter-Pan style! I'm gonna let go and-!" The wind so high up carried his voice away.

I stared blankly, forcing myself not to look down. Behind his shoulder I saw the giant's naval give way to belly, and belly to chest. …Don't even want to know how high up…

"Ready?" my Praetor yelled. Without waiting for a reply, he let go.

It was almost like a water slide. Almost. Except you don't usually see through the slide straight to the ground.

I screamed as things whizzed by, flashes of color and shade that were stretched and mutated beyond recognition. But Jason was Jason – and my only hope at this point.

Not to mention he might've been right. That this was necessary. Even if I couldn't kill this thing, my family deserved my full effort. Including the terror of flight.

The giant's nose passed, identifiable only by the eyes that framed it. Horrid, soulless white pits.

I flung the largest blast I could muster while flying.

The aim was off. I hit one nose, one eye, and one ear. But it was enough. The giant yelled and slammed the eye shut and suddenly I was gone, gone, soaring over his braided hair. Some of the rusted weapons weren't covered in rust at all, I realized. It was dried blood.

The ground was so far away. Like I could just float off to whatever universe and never be seen again. Like I could smear all the people and demons, all the good and all the bad, into a sickening oblivion with one swipe of my hand.

Not fear. Not fear, Întuneric hummed. The vibrations felt comforting.

I heard the giant scream again, and it was so sweet, it was nearly worth it.

"Again!" I yelled, signaling to Jason.

Stupid giant. This is his fault. Look at the weapons in his hair. Look at the people he's killed.

Beneath him, Brook was still running around, trying to find a good shot.

I sliced into the side of his neck, driving Întuneric in all the way to the hilt. Freezing blood ran all over my hands.

"Coward!" the giant sneered, so close I heard ringing in my ears. The winds holding me up burst to life out of nowhere and I shot off faster than I could understand.

Jason. He was catapulting me away from something. The giant's hand, probably.

Twice more the winds barreled me past him. There was never enough time to extract payment, but so long I listened to him scream, I didn't have to be quite so scared.

The last time was the best. Jason closed in on the giant's head with a battle cry and ripped a sword from his hair as I shot by – and at just the right time, as the demon was paused between inhale and exhale, Jason was so clever – beneath his nose. I could feel the swell of shadows amplify in the dark channel as they went, sending macabre chills up my spine. The demon's eyes hardly had time to widen before Jason's stolen sword sliced into its ear.

That might not have bothered it, if there wasn't lightning involved.

The demon cried out and the breath sent me tumbling away, a horrifying reel of dark and light flashes going off before my eyes. Instinct had me leaping for the shadows.

No! No, stay! Jason needs you here!

It took all I had not to run. Took every last second of that demon screaming, of the crackle of its hair on fire.

Just as I began to slow – as I felt Jason's wind at my back again – something slammed into me from the left. Pain erupted across my body as it whizzed past. The scent of singed hair – real hair, not leaves – flooded my nose.

Ventus.

I saw the blaring white sparks as it turned, and then I was shot off again, a wind current drowning me as it shot by.

Jason, I thought. Then I realized how fast the ground was emerging.

No. No, no, no. It was dizzying enough without seeing it rush on up-

-shadows-

But light caught my eye, gleaming silver, on my right hand. It caught the stars and moon and gleamed like a beacon. Or a magic gem in a dark, dark room. A moment of pure silver.

I hardly glanced at it for a moment, but it was a moment I didn't have.

The ground hit me then, and my eyes slammed shut, leaving only darkness. I felt my body roll but the impact was merely nonexistent; I knew I moved, knew I was in the snow, but didn't feel it itself. Almost as if I'd been caught by the winds again.

As soon as it stopped, I opened my eyes. Had to get up, had to move-

My left arm gave way beneath me. I stared down in shock at the elbow – it bent backwards, leaving my hand to trail palm-up in the snow. White bone winked at me through the skin. Scarlet was pouring onto the pure frost.

My last thought was some a mix of not again and odd, it really doesn't hurt that much.

oOo

Nyx: Nico vs Khione comes so easily to me. The whole symbolism and Scott vs Amundsen thing wasn't in my RD's, and I think it might've been a tad overdone, but oh well. You can still feel the hate between them. Right? Review and let me know.

Nic: *reads ending* You're right about this ending event here. It feels like we're trolling our readers. I wonder if Bree has any frantic fans now.

Nyx: *shrugs* Well, y'all should know – even though this is SO late, tomorrow's chapter should go up according to schedule, unless the site goes down or something. As I said, it's already about 70% done. And the things I need to add on aren't too complicated. Please let me know how I did on this one – I didn't intend it to be long, but I kept it that way because y'all deserved a long chapter, anyway. Thoughts? Concerns? Critiques?

Nic: Every time you don't leave a review, Khione kills someone.

Nyx: SPACESHIP!

Nic: *jumps and stares*

Nyx: *waits for readers to understand reference. And yes, I actually went to that movie. Wasn't bad at all for its age group*