SEASBLU- the casualness kills me lol
LovelyAstorxia- thank you! it really did go by fast...since we're so close to the end i figured why not post everyday
radoddish- haha indeed it is
all about hope- oh no that's awful! i hope he makes a full recovery. i'm studying to be in the healthcare field so I totally get wanting to help people, good for you!
AyeraeW- gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight! sorry your comment reminded me of that song haha but yes angst is coming! we love the angst
guest- ugh, oh no! gives you reading material though :) and man i feel that i'd rather fight gaea anyday!
Jason quickly wrapped his arms around Piper and Rosie, ready to launch.
"Wait!" Percy yelled. "Frank can fly the rest of us up there! We can-"
"No," Rosie said, shaking her head. As much as she hated it, it had to be the four of them. It had to end how it started. "They need you here. Besides, the prophecy-"
"She's right, Percy," Frank backed her up. "This is their part of the quest. Like Annabeth's quest in Rome or Hazel at the Doors of Death. It has to be them."
Percy opened his mouth, ready to argue. At that moment, another flood of monsters swept over their forces.
"Hey, we got a problem over here!" Annabeth shouted, waving Percy over.
Percy quickly ran to join her, tossing a "Be careful!" over his shoulder.
Frank and Hazel turned to the three of them, saluting before disappearing into the legion.
Jason shot them upwards into the sky, as Rosie could hear Piper murmuring, "I've got the cure, I've got the cure…"
Festus was above the, grappling with the Earth Goddess among thunder and lightning. Gaea kept disintegrating, trying to get back down to the ground, but the winds were keeping her aloft.
Leo blasted Gaea with flames from the back of Festus, screaming, "Potty Sludge! Dirt Face! THIS IS FOR MY MOTHER, ESPERANZA VALDEZ!"
His whole body was covered in flames.
"We have to keep her off the ground!" Rosie yelled over the noise.
"Got it!" Jason gritted out. She could tell he was struggling with holding her and Piper up, stoking the storm, and trying to contain Gaea.
Meanwhile, Rosie looked back down at the ground, pushing away the nausea. She knew one way they could keep her off the ground.
She concentrated, the ground splitting beneath them. Confused camps ran off to the side, being separated from the monsters due to the crack getting bigger. Soon, it was demigods on one side of the rift, monsters on the other.
They rose alongside Festus, who creaked and groaned with effort. She flashed back to all those hours Leo spent in the hull of the ship, working on some secret project. He must have been building a new body for Festus this entire time.
She was thrilled- she never thought she'd see that day Festus would be in all his glory again.
"YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" Gaea roared, crumbling to sand. Festus blasted her with some more flames. Her body melted into a lump of glass, shattered, and then re-formed as a human. "I AM ETERNAL!"
"Eternally annoying!" Leo yelled, taking Festus higher.
"Get me closer," Piper urged Jason. "I need to be next to her."
"Um, Pipes-" Rosie piped in.
The rift down below was splitting even bigger, the entire camp shaking.
"Piper, the flames-" Jason started.
"I know," Piper said.
As they got closer, wind enclosed the goddess, keeping her solid. However, occasionally she would shoot off blasts of sand and soil. It helped that Rosie could cause some of her pieces to crumble off, falling down below into the rift.
"FOOLISH CHILDREN!"
"You are weary," Piper told the Earth Mother, her voice full of kindness and sympathy. "Eons of pain and disappointment weigh on you."
"SILENCE!"
Jason momentarily lost control of the winds. They plunged for one second, before Festus wrapped one of his claws around the three of them.
"Millenia of sorrow," Piper said without missing a beat. Could they really put Gaea to sleep? "Your husband Ouranos was abusive. Your grandchildren the gods overthrew your beloved children, the Titans. Your other children, the Cyclops and the Hundred-Handed Ones, were thrown into Tartarus. You are so tired."
"LIES!" Gaea crumbled into a tornado of soil and grass, but her essence seemed slower.
The air was getting thinner at such a high altitude, and harder to breathe. She felt the effects of Piper's words on her own body, getting more legatharic by the minute.
"What you want," Piper continued. "More than victory, more than revenge...you want rest. You are so weary, tired of mortals."
"I-YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME-YOU CANNOT-"
"You want one thing," Piper said soothingly. "One word. You want permission to close your eyes and forget your troubles. You want….SLEEP."
Gaea solidified into human form, her eyes closed. Festus wrapped his other claw around her.
She could see black spots in her visions, her vision blurring.
"Leo-" Piper gasped for air. "We only have a few seconds. My charmspeak won't-"
"I know!" Leo was glowing magnificently, looking like he was the sun. Flames danced on his skin. "I can't contain the fire much longer. I'll vaporize her into the rift Rosie made! Don't worry! You guys need to leave!"
"No!" Rosie got a sudden burst of energy. "We're not leaving you! Piper..." She shook her head, shaking the exhaustion away. "Piper has the cure!"
Don't do anything stupid, Leo.
"Hey," Leo grinned confidently at the three of them. "I told you guys I had a plan. When are you going to trust me? By the way- I love you guys."
Festus's claw opened, and they plunged towards the earth.
The three of them held onto each other, screaming Leo's name as they fell.
Festus became a ball of fire in the sky. Out of the corner of her eye, a blazing comet streaked upward from the ground, intercepting the ball of fire above them.
The entire sky turned gold in a fiery explosion, the sound of Leo's name on her lips drowned out.
Voices were whispering around her.
She couldn't place where she was at first, just saw the huge overhead lights, making her wince. All it did was remind her of the sky turning gold.
Leo…
A light shined into her eyes, and she winced again, wiggling away from it.
"I'm sorry, Rosie. I just wanted to check your pupils."
Her vision came into focus, and Will Solace was standing over her, a stethoscope around his neck. The expression on his face worried her.
"You're in the infirmary. Do you remember anything that happened?"
She didn't answer, and Will gave her a sympathetic look.
"Well, good news is that your injuries are minor….nothing a little nectar and ambrosia won't fix. Percy's been coming by every five minutes to check on you. And Piper and Jason are okay…" Will trailed off, an awkward look on his face.
They were okay. That meant…
BOOM.
Somewhere, off in the infirmary, she could hear water running like a fountain. Several people ran by with mops and buckets. She blew up the sinks.
Will pulled a chair up to bed, sitting down next to her, unfazed by the sinks.
"I'm going to start an IV, Rosie. Just something to hydrate you."
Her mind wouldn't stop replaying Leo's final moments.
"I told you guys I had a plan. When are you going to trust me? By the way- I love you guys."
She grabbed Will's hand, before he could do anything.
"I'm not ready."
She wasn't talking about the IV, and Will probably knew that.
Will nodded, holding her hand tighter. "Take your time, Rosie...we have all the time in the world."
Running on the track, surprisingly, was one of the few Wilderness activities she actually liked. After all, she could do it alone. And more often than not, Coach would get bored and go inside, leaving the students to go at whatever pace they wanted.
She had the strangest feeling, however, that she was being trailed. She dreaded that maybe, Isabel or one of her cronies were going to come up behind her and trip her.
"Yoo-hoo!" Now, that didn't sound like any of them.
She glanced over her shoulder, seeing a scrawny elf-like boy chasing after her, waving like they were best friends. It hit her that it was the boy from the laundry room. Now, what did he want?
"Hey!" The boy panted hard, coming up on her left. "Man, you're fast! Are you avoiding someone?"
She rolled her eyes. "Do you need something?"
"Well, I-" The boy was trailing over closer to her.
"Stay in your lane," she instructed sharply, picking up the pace.
"Yeesh, okay! I just wanted to thank you about the other day."
"No clue what you're talking about."
"Aw, look at us! Already best friends who mess with each other."
She groaned under her breath, wondering how she could get rid of this kid. "We're not friends."
"Are you really in the position to be turning down friends? No offense, but I've seen you alone at lunch. I only say it because I'm in the same position."
Rosie felt embarrassed, glancing down at her feet. "I like eating alone, it tastes better that way."
"Uh-huh…"
"Fine!" she snapped. "You want to be my friend so bad? First rule, we run in silence."
"But-"
"Silence!"
That was apparently too hard for this friend. Not even a second later, he went, "Hey, freckles-"
"Freckles?" She exclaimed, irritated.
"Uh-Yeah-" the boy nervously broke off. "Because..." He gestured to her nose. "Ah, well, nevermind. I guess spots will do."
"Spots?" She exclaimed, fear going through her body. "On second thought, I love Freckles. Suits me, don't you think?"
The boy grinned. "I'm Leo, by the way. Leo Valdez. But I will respond to Leo the Lady Magnet."
"Oh, dude, gross."
"You're regretting this already, aren't you?"
"Yes," she answered immediately. "I'm Rosie."
"Well, Rosie, I'll race you to the finish line."
"I'm not going to-"
But Leo was gone, sprinting away and laughing.
She totally didn't need a friend.
She knew that was a lie.
She didn't think twice.
Rosie sprinted after Leo, the most fun she had in months.