Chapter 18 - Piper Makes a Really Dumb Decision

When we all sat down and had something to eat, Piper began. "So, I had a dream. Well, a nightmare. I was at the Acropolis in Athens, flying over the Parthenon, and all the Giants were there. I mean, every single one. All the ones we had already killed, and all the ones we haven't tried yet."

I ground my teeth. That was my mom's temple. Sure, she and I weren't in a great place in our relationship right now, what with the whole going-silent-for-months-then-sending-me-on-a-solo-suicide-quest thing, but still. It made me angry to hear these Giants had taken it over and were using it as their evil base.

"Otis and Ephialtes, Polybotes, Enceladus…. All of them. There were at least twenty Giants, and tons of other monsters. Ogres, cyclops, Earthborn, dracanae - it was a monster army. " Piper continued. "Then, as I was watching, King Porphyrion broke out of the ground and took his seat on a giant throne. Another giant ran up with news of everything we've done - they know we defeated Victory as well as all the ghosts at Ithaca. They didn't seem to care very much. They know we are taking the long way."

Everyone looked unhappy about that. I wondered if now Gaea would send her forces this way.

"Porphyrion said this was the route they expected us to take. Maybe they only had those forces in the straight in order to force us this way."

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't a good feeling to know that we were doing exactly as Gaea had planned.

"They said we need to unleash the Makhai, which I'm not sure what that is." Piper said, frowning. She looked at me. I mouthed, "Keep going." and she nodded.

She took a breath. "Porphyrion said some monster, Mimas, is waiting for Annabeth and I in Sparta. He also said that demigods can't change their fate - that we are fated to have our blood spilled at the Acropolis and wake Gaea."

I started to tremble and grabbed Percy's hand for support. Suddenly, all the toilets on board exploded. Percy, I thought exasperated.

"No way are you two going down there alone." Percy said forcefully.

Leo ran from the room, waving a wrench and yelling back, "Man! Did you have to destroy the plumbing?"

Percy ignored him. I was just glad that this time, I wasn't covered in the toilet water. Percy glared at the table and I heard the sound of sinks exploding and more plumbing damage being done. Everyone at the table looked a little frightened by the experience. I wasn't, though. I had made my peace with Percy's abilities.

"We'll be alright." I assured my boyfriend. "Piper foresaw the two of us going down there, so that's what needs to happen."

Percy turned his glare to Piper, as if he was going to force her to change the prophecy in the knife. "And this Mimas dude? I'm guessing he's a Giant."

"Probably." Piper said, but she looked frightened. "Porphyrion called him 'Our Brother'."

"And the bronze statue surrounded by fire?" Percy said it so intensely, Piper seemed to shrink in her chair. "And these other things you mentioned, Makis?"

""Makhai." Piper said, trying to sound calm. "I think the word means battles in Greek but I don't know how it applies, exactly."

"That's my point! We don't know what's down there. I'm going with you." Percy insisted.

As much as I wanted him along, I knew that Piper's dagger had only seen the two of us. For all I knew, if Percy came along he would be taken, hurt, or killed to ensure it was only the two of us in the cave.

"No." I told him firmly, placing a hand on his arm. "If the Giants want our blood, the last thing we need is a boy and a girl going down there together, remember? They want one of us each for their big sacrifice." I didn't want to point out that Gaea had specifically mentioned wanting me and Percy for the big sacrifice, so we definitely didn't need the two of us going down there.

"I'll get Jason." Percy said stubbornly. "And the two of us -"

"Seaweed Brain, are you implying that two boys can handle this better than two girls?" I asked him, knowing I had trapped him soundly.

"No. I mean, no, but…"

I kissed him. When I pulled away I could tell there wasn't just worry in his eyes - it was fear, maybe panic.

"We'll be back before you know it." I promised him. I turned to leave before I saw anymore of the fear in his eyes. I wanted so badly to spare him from that, but I also knew we couldn't make a different choice. I trudged through the hallway, my sneakers splashing in the toilet water. I could hear Leo muttering and cursing in the boys' bathroom.

"Stupid son of the sea god…. Exploding toilets…. Stinking magic plumbing…. Won't fix itself…"

I grinned and walked to the deck. Piper and I headed down the rope ladder before any of the guys could stop us. We walked across Sparta, trusting Piper's instincts and her knife to show us the right way. It took us an hour, but we found the hill Piper thought was the right one. We had gone through modern Sparta, which Piper said seemed like Albuquerque. I had made Piper check out the archeology museum, which I found fascinating and Piper seemed utterly bored at, in case it said anything helpful about the ruins we were going to find. Then we had checked the giant metal statue in the Spartan square in case it was the right one. We had touched all around the base, screamed insults to Ares at it, but nothing happened, so probably not the right statue. We found a museum of olives and olive oil, which I once more found fun and Piper began to drag her feet like I was boring her to death. I didn't really want to go to the ruins, but we had run out of places to check. So, there we were. And I'll admit it - I was terrified. Giants can only be killed by a demigod and a god working together, and to my knowledge, we didn't have a god on our side. Piper and I could very well die here. Well, if I had to admit it, Piper was likely to die here. I was likely to be caught and tortured, then brought to Athens in chains to be killed alongside Percy, but yeah. Bottom line? I did not want to be here.

"This used to be Sparta's Acropolis." I explained to Piper. "Like, the highest point in the main fortress."

"This is a tiny hill compared to Athens's Acropolis." Piper said quietly. Small olive trees and wind-swept grass covered most of the hill. The ruins stretched out below us for about a quarter of a mile. Limestone blocks and broken walls were all there was to show of most of it. It was sad to look at. I knew Sparta and Athens had been rivals in the past, but still. I felt bad for this once-great city being reduced to this. I was sweating and pulled my water bottle from my bag. I drank deeply and looked around.

"You'd think that if there's a thirty-foot tall giant around here, we'd see him." Piper muttered, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

I looked at the Argo II, docked above Sparta. Percy was no doubt standing on the deck, hogging Leo's spyglass so he could keep an eye on us. I wondered if this was the last time he'd see me. I gently placed a hand on my leather necklace and found the red coral piece that Percy had given me when we first started dating. I remembered flashes of all our adventures together - the first time I kissed him in Mount St. Helens, the crazy Tunnel of Love ride at Waterland, his face when I told him he needed to ride the underside of a sheep at Polyphemus's cave. I was so scared of what was to come that suddenly, I desperately wished he was here, standing beside me instead of Piper.

"You're thinking about Percy?" Piper guessed.

I nodded, not taking my eyes off the ship.

"He seems to be adjusting." Piper said, clearly trying to be helpful.

Instead, her words brought back memories of what he was adjusting from. I remembered the feeling of the river Cocytus, urging me to give up and let Percy slip away. I remembered the roar of the water of the Phlegethon, burning its way through my body, then my desperation as I poured the same flames into Percy's mouth, hoping he was alive enough to take it. The empousa - the one who had urged Luke to do his worst - coming back to kill us. The glass shards of the shore, cutting into our hands and feet.

"He's smiling more often. You know he cares about you more than ever." Piper said.

She was trying to be a good friend, but instead it just brought back the memories of the things Percy had done because he cared about me. Holding up the weight of the sky, fighting a Titan, jumping into Tartarus, nearly killing Akhlys. I sat down, the memory of the terror in the goddess's eyes, and the hatred in Percy's, nearly overwhelming me. It felt so real, so present in my mind.

"I don't know why it's hitting me so hard, all of the sudden." I said, partly to my friend but partly to myself. Typically, it only hit me this bad after nightmares that forced me to relive my time in Tartarus. "I can't quite get that memory out of my head - how Percy looked when he was standing at the edge of Chaos."

I sat there in silence for a while, stuck in that moment. I kept trying to calm my breathing, force myself to calm down and get to the task at hand. But all I wanted to do was get back to the ship, sit in my bunk, and hold my teddy bear until everything was alright.

"Give him time." Piper said, sitting next to me. "The guy is crazy about you. You've been through so much together."

"I know." But for right now, I could only think about the bad things we had gone through. All the times we thought we were going to die. "It's just… Bob the Titan, he warned me that there would be more sacrifices ahead. I want to believe that we can have a normal life someday, but I allowed myself to hope for that last summer, after the Titan War. Then Percy disappeared for months." I choked back a sob, reliving the fear and panic when I found his cabin empty that morning last December. I took a breath. "Then we fell into that Pit." I could feel a tear fall from my face. "Piper, if you'd seen his face… the god of Tartarus, all swirling darkness devouring monsters and vaporizing them…" I let out a small sob. "I've never felt so helpless. I try not to think about it."

Piper gently picked up my hands. I realized they were shaking so hard that Piper's hands shook as well. "Hey." Piper said it gently, "Don't try to shut out the feelings. You won't be able to, just let them wash over you and drain out again. You're scared."

"Yes! Gods, I'm scared." I said, feeling my entire body start to shake.

"You're angry." She said. Somehow, Piper naming my feelings helped me.

"At Percy for frightening me." It felt strange to say that. I truly thought I had made my peace with that yesterday. But the feelings came up again. "At my mom, for sending me on this horrible quest in Rome. At, well, pretty much everybody." I admitted. "Gaea. The Giants. The gods being jerks."

"At me?" Piper asked in a small voice.

"Yes! For being so annoyingly calm." I said it with a shaky laugh.

"It's all a lie." Piper said simply.

"And for being a good friend."

"Ha."

"And for having your head on straight about guys and relationships and -"

"I'm sorry, have you met me?" Piper said, incredulously. I punched her lightly in the arm.

"I'm stupid, sitting here talking about my feelings when we have a quest to finish."

"The Chained God's Heartbeat can wait." Piper said. Gods, why did she have to be so good at this listening and friendship stuff?

"Whatever happens, I'm your friend. Just, remember that, ok?" She said, and I wondered if she had seen something in Katoptris she hadn't mentioned.

"I'd never forge-"

Suddenly, a roaring sound came from the ruins, which is absolutely never a good sign. A giant column of flames rose out of what appeared to be a well. Then it turned off. I remembered the giant Cacus in the meat packing district in New York. He had been a fire-breathing giant. I wondered if we were about to meet his bigger, nastier brother.

"What the heck?" Piper asked.

I sighed. Fire columns were sort of like a demigod bat-signal. "I don't know, but I have a feeling it's something we should check out."

When we reached the pit I realized that it wasn't just one well, but three in a row. It reminded me of a whack-a-mole game - maybe monsters would pop out of each hole and we had to whack them. The holes were tiled around the rim, about two feet in diameter, and were so dark that we couldn't see anything in the bottom. Every now and then, one of the holes would spew a giant column of fire, but the heat, color, and intensity was different each time. I tried to time it or find some kind of pattern, but I couldn't.

"They weren't doing that before." I muttered. I walked around the pits, trying to figure out what kind of trap this was. I could tell I was still shaking a little, but I tried to focus on the puzzle. "There doesn't seem to be any pattern. The timing, the color, the height of the fire… I don't get it."

"Did we activate them somehow?" Piper asked. "Maybe that surge of fear you felt on the hill. I mean, we both felt."

I wasn't sure how feelings could activate a trap. Generally, when I got stuck in a trap there was a trip wire, or a monster waiting nearby, or something physical that had happened. Emotions alone shouldn't be able to do anything, should they?

"There must be some sort of mechanism, a pressure plate, a proximity alarm." I decided. Flames shot out of the center pit. I began to count, ensuring that Piper and I stayed still. Then, flames shot out of the left pit. I frowned. "That's not right. It's inconsistent. It has to follow some kind of logic." Suddenly, I wanted Leo here to fix these pits, explain to them that everything had an order to it and they weren't following that order.

"It isn't rational." Piper said suddenly. "It's emotional."

"How can fire pits be emotional?"

Piper held her hand over the right-most pit. Instantly, fire shot from the pit. I was terrified that her hand had just been scorched off. "Piper!" I yelled, running to my friend. "What are you thinking?"

"I - I wasn't. I was feeling. What we want is down there. These pits are the way in. I'll have to jump."

"Are you crazy?" I hadn't thought Piper went crazy during my time in Tartarus, but that seemed like the dumbest idea I had heard in a long time. Jump into fire pits? I mean, not fire pits, but pits that shot fire. "Even if you don't get stuck in the tube, you have no idea how deep it is."

"You're right."

"You'll be burned alive."

"Possibly." Piper then unbuckled her sword and tossed it into the right pit. "I'll let you know if it's safe. Wait for my word."

"Don't you dare -" I warned her. Then I watched my friend jump straight into the flaming pit of doom. I stood there, mouth open at the level of stupidity I had just seen. I wondered how I was going to tell Jason that his girlfriend killed herself by jumping straight into a pit that we had seen fire shoot out of. I imagined having to go back to the Argo II and telling everyone how Piper had died. I remembered Bob's mention of future sacrifices and wondered if Piper had just turned herself into a human offering. No more flames came out of the other holes. With a sickeningly feeling, I wondered if Piper's death had cleared the way for us.

"Piper?" I called down, desperately hoping for an answer.

"Yeah."

I wanted to sob. "Thank the gods! You ok?"

"Yeah, hold on a second."

I tried to steady my breathing. I had been so scared for my friend.

"Annabeth!" I heard that small voice coming from the pit. "It's a long drop, but it's safe to come down. Maybe, uh, if you have a rope, you could fasten it and we could get back up."

I wanted to mutter about how stupid she was, jumping into a pit with no way back up. But mostly, I just wanted to hug her in relief.

"On it!" I assured her. I found a tree that I thought should hold our weight, I hoped, and pulled out some rope from my backpack. Since my trip under Rome I didn't leave the ship without it. I never knew when I'd need to weave some escape route. Within minutes, I was sliding down the rope and into the cavern.

"Piper McLean, that was without a doubt the dumbest risk I have ever seen anyone take, and I date a dumb risk-taker."

"Thank you." Was her only response. I couldn't decide whether to punch her or hug her at this point.

"I'm guessing these are the dragons of Ares." Piper said, nudging a stone dragon head with her foot. "The ones that are his sacred animals, right?"

"And there's the chained god himself." I said, deciding to handle Piper at another time. "Where do you think those doorways -"

Piper held up a hand to silence me. "Do you hear that?"

I listened for a moment. A sort-of metallic ka-thump, ka-thump. It seemed to be coming from the statue.

"The heartbeat of a chained god." Piper murmured.

I pulled out my sword. Piper had hers in her hand.

"I - I don't like this, Piper. We need to leave." Something felt very bad about this cave, the tunnels, everything was freaking me out.

"The shrine is ramping up our emotions." Piper realized. "It's like being around my Mom, except this place radiates fear, not love."

Aphrodite's love magic had never really made me feel good, either, especially since she had promised to make my love life "interesting", and was possibly one of the reasons I ended up in Tartarus.

"That's why you started feeling overwhelmed on the hill." Piper continued. "Down here, it's a thousand times stronger."

I realized she was right, and it made me feel better that there was a reason for my panic attack on the hill. I hadn't just broken or anything, I was being influenced by a god. Then that made me angry.

"Ok. Well, we need a plan to get the statue out." How many times was I going to have to get a statue out from a cave on this trip? "Maybe haul it up with the rope, but -"

"Wait. A shrine that radiates fear." Piper said, clearly working something out. But I didn't want her to - I wanted to grab the dang statue and run. I had been in such a similar situation before. This wasn't a time for thinking and planning - this was a time for grabbing and running.

"Ares had two divine sons, didn't he?" Piper asked me.

"Uh, Phobos and Demos." I told her, looking at the two tunnels warily. I could almost imagine Arachne coming out of one. "Panic and Fear. Percy met them on Staten Island once."

"I think those are their faces above the doors." Piper said. "This isn't just a shrine to Ares, it's a temple of Fear."

Yeah, way to make me feel better about the place, Pipes. A horrible laugh echoed through the chamber. Yeah, way to make me feel better about the place, chamber.

Then a giant appeared. And by appeared, I really mean appeared. Almost like shadow travel. He didn't come through the doorways. He wasn't the biggest Giant I'd faced - maybe 25 feet tall - but he was holding a massive sledgehammer. He was a dark grey color all over.

"Very good, child of Aphrodite." He said in that reptilian voice. "This is indeed a temple of fear. And I'm here to make you believers."

I didn't know what that meant but I hoped he was just going to pass around a donation cup that we could put a few drachmas into - you know, offerings to fear, psalms for the poor who don't feel fear, that sort of thing. But I had a bad feeling he meant something a lot worse.