CHAPTER FOUR: Happens All The Time
Piper. Piper, baby, you gotta get up.
She tried to blink one eye open. The bleary image of a blonde looking down at her filled her vision. Her eyes fell shut. Gods, her head hurt.
Honey, come on. You're gonna miss it.
At those words, Piper's eyes flew open. And she immediately regretted it.
She felt her head leaning against something – no, she was lying flat on the ground, unable to lift her head. The edge of a seat was on her forehead, keeping her head down. Something else felt like it was stabbing into her stomach – one of the armrests of the chairs. And it also felt cool around her head, the same feeling when cold air blew against water on your body, but she was willing to bet that her head wasn't covered in some nice water-fountain water. Nah. She could smell the blood from here.
Piper blinked her eyes a couple of times, willing her vision to clear.
The Laistrygonian giant (the one named Bill) had thrown his aisle of chairs at her, and it rolled against the floor, sweeping up the other chairs until it created a WAVE of debris that fell on top of her and Alex May. And then the ceiling caved in. And she could hear the birds squawking above them, coming to feed on their carcasses. Her and Alex May. Wait. Alex –
"Alex –" she called out, coughing. "Alex –"
"Oi, Billy, lookie here! One of them's alive!" Jutt the Giant shouted.
One?
"Little busy over here, Jutt!"
Piper recognised Riley's unmistakeable war cry, and the rumbling grunt of the giant as they fought.
The panic returned. Piper gave a strangled cry as she tried to move her head, burning her the skin of her forehead against the rough fabric of the seat on top of her. She managed to move an inch to the left, and then an agonising two inches to the right. Nothing to be seen.
"Alex – Alex, come on –"
The mountain of debris shifted.
A single chair at the top rolled down the side. Dust from the ceiling panels began to shake down, and Piper turned her head so it wouldn't get in her eyes. She coughed. The chairs on top of her moved enough so her arms could slip out, and she took a deep breath, the pressure off her chest. But her legs were still stuck.
Looking to the side, she could see her dagger just a few feet from her. Her sword, nowhere to be seen.
Piper reached out for Katoptris. "Come on – Come on –"
The tip of her finger touched the hilt, and her vision flashed with the face of the man again. The very same man from her dreams, looking straight at her once more. She'd never seen a vision without having to look at the blade.
The debris rumbled again. Piper held her arms over her head, preparing for the worst. The rumbling continued, but things began to fall away, lifted off Piper, so nothing trapped her now. There was a hole in the mountain of debris, showering Piper in daylight as she inched herself away from the pile. Sunshine flooded her eyes. She wiggled her legs a bit to test for any injuries, picked up Katoptris, and then held her hand over her eyes like a visor to see against the sun. To see where the giants were, to see how Riley and Mags were doing, and the crying baby, to find her sword, to plan what she could do with all the jolting pain in her body and a bleeding head, and –
And there was Alex May.
Alex May, who stood before her, her arms and back supporting the debris as she lifted it up. Alex May, who, for one second, looked at her with that apologetic expression she'd gotten so used to, before her face became something unreadable. Something serious, her gaze dead-set on what was in front of her.
With the bright light behind her, it almost looked like she was glowing.
Alex was careful to move the debris so it wouldn't crash on top of Piper.
"What…" Piper whispered to herself, crawling back a few more inches, still staring at Alex.
She could see her sword now, right at her feet, and Alex went to pick it up. "I'll just –" she started saying, "I'll just borrow this, I'll give it back to you, I promise."
Piper's jaw dropped. Her grip tightened around Katoptris just to hold on to something real, something she was sure about, and then she backed up as far as she could, stunned as she watched Alex go. She heard Riley and Mags' voices calling out to her, and then two figures at the edge of her vision crowding around her, asking if she was okay, and did she need anything, and how was her head, and they would get something to stop the bleeding – but all she could see was Alex.
Behind her, the sunset only seemed to shine more and more.
The window that the monsters crashed through directly faced the horizon, so they and Alex May were washed in oranges and yellows. It was the kind of scene she'd expect painted on a Grecian urn. The hero rushing towards them, sword in hand. The monsters roaring, rearing to meet them. A scene immortalised in clay and stone.
On her way to the giants, Alex was already slashing at some of the birds with her sword, leaping up into the air – more than any human should be able to – and killing them mid-flight.
She ran up to Jutt the Giant and dodged his swinging iron club, as if she saw it coming from a mile off. Alex leapt up, too fast and light for the giant. Using his arm as a step, she launched herself up to pierce Piper's sword through his back, stabbing his heart from behind. The giant burst into dark dust, his club disappearing with him, already on his way to Tartarus.
Alex jumped to the ground, landing on one knee next to Bill.
Mags gasped. "Superhero landing."
Bill, shocked and mad at the quick loss of his companion, roared so loud that the windows shook and the birds flying overhead cawed and cried in a frenzy. Most of them began to fly out. Fuming, Bill tried to grab Alex, but she simply ducked her head and then held onto Bill's arm as it swung upward, bringing her along with it. He didn't have an iron club, but his hands were still dangerous as he tried to grab her. She stabbed his hand every time he tried. Bill screamed in frustration, trying to grab at her again with his other hand, and she climbed up, standing up with one foot on each of his shoulders, holding onto his hair like they were reins. She pulled on his hair to get his attention. The giant screamed.
"What are you doing here?" Alex demanded, pulling on his hair.
"I AIN'T SAYING NOTHING –"
Alex placed the sword against Bill's throat.
"YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME, I AIN'T SAYING NOTHING –"
She dug in the blade to his skin.
"COR - I'LL SAY SOMETHING – I'LL SAY SOMETHING –"
He lowered his hands as if in a surrender, cowering under the girl standing on his shoulders. The birds began to circle him, and he swatted them away. When Alex glanced at them, the birds screamed, scaring themselves.
"I'll let you go if you answer my questions," Alex said.
Piper groaned as she tried to get up. She needed to stop her right there.
"All right, all right, I'll answer 'em, I swear, I'll answer – just let go of me hair –"
Alex blinked, as if remembering she just had the giant's head in a vice-grip, and a sword at his throat. "Right – sorry –" She lifted the blade but still kept a hold of Bill's hair. Bill stomped around, breathing a sigh of relief, but he was puzzled.
"Sorry?" Bill echoed. He squinted one eye at her, trying to look up. Alex balanced herself as he leaned back. He scratched his chest. "Did ye just say sorry at me?"
Piper got on her knees. Mags' eyes widened. "What, you wanna go over there?"
"She can't – she can't let him go –" Piper wheezed, gripping her stomach.
"I ain't never had nobody say sorry at me –" The giant continued.
"Well – um –" Alex stammered, the glow of the hero fading the more she hesitated. "Well, everyone should say sorry. You should say sorry too."
"What's that got to do with killing? We ain't supposed to be talking like this, it's not proper."
"But I need to talk, you're still going to tell me what I need to know –" Alex began to pull on his hair again.
"OKAY! Okay, okay, all right, I'll talk." He sniffed. "Let go of me hair. Who do you think you are, anyways?"
Alex let go. "Sorry. I'm A-Alex May."
"Oh, yeah? Well, A-Alex May, the name's Bill, and whatever nonsense you say, I ain't ever apologising to no one –"
Alex was still standing on the giant by the time Piper got on her feet, supported by Riley and Mags on either side. Riley's cheek was cut up, and Mags had what looked like bird scratches and bites all over her arms (probably from trying to shield her face), but otherwise they looked okay.
"Okay, listen, this is all I know –" Bill was turning around on the spot, trying to see Alex as he spoke, but she was still holding on to his hair, still standing on his shoulders. "Listen, will you just stop tuggin' –"
"I'll stop if YOU stop spinning around!"
"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT –" Bill stopped, holding out his arms in surrender again. "I can't tell you much of anything anyways, I dunno who sent us, it was just me and Jutt over there," he sniffed again, pointing at the place where Jutt once stood. "And we was minding our own business, of course, thinkin' about going to steal some cows over from some farmers – they're mighty nice those Canadian cows, y'know – and we got wind of a message. Wind of a message. Told us to find…to – to find…oh, no."
The giant stopped, staring at something in the sky. Piper couldn't see it from her angle. Alex tried to see, but she was too close to the roof at this height. "Bill, what are you…?" she asked, bending her knees to try and see.
Piper lead Riley and Mags forward to try and see out the window.
Less birds were flying around now, most of them terrified by Alex (Piper guessed) and the others getting bored of the lack of feast in front of them. "It's just the birds – is there a storm-spirit?" asked Riley, already taking out his sword. But in the kerfuffle, Piper thought she saw another figure dart past the sky, higher than the birds. When she tried to look up, the sun shone in her eye. She looked away.
Bill spoke up again: "A-Alex May, we had to find that demigod child-child."
THWIP.
From the sky, through the birds, past Piper, Riley and Mags, and under Alex's feet, a black arrow shot into Bill's heart. The giant disappeared without even a scream, and Alex tumbled to the ground. The arrow clattered down with her.
A few things happened after Bill died and the arrow fell to the ground.
First, Piper and Alex argued. Or, rather, they shouted at each other, both completely confused about what just happened and trying in vain to understand. She couldn't remember exactly what they said, but it was probably something along the lines of:
"He just – he just died, how did that – where did this come from?"
"It's a black arrow, I –"
"Do you know what it is?"
"It's a BLACK ARROW—"
Not the wisest of conversations. But in that moment, after seeing what Alex did, after the mysterious death of the giant, after a week of finding monster-hunters and living with them, Piper couldn't handle it any longer. She didn't care if nothing made sense anymore, nothing ever did and she was stupid enough to believe she could forge her own destiny. Now she just needed to go home.
They heard the wail of the sirens, knowing full well that paramedics, policemen, and firemen were already on their way (if not already in the building). Maybe even SWAT, since this was a pretty big airport with a pretty huge hole in the side of it now, but Piper didn't know enough about government policy. Piper didn't care. All she cared about now was trying to get out of the airport.
The second thing that happened, was Alex getting weaker by the minute.
Riley and Mags, their faces still scratched, the wounds on their arms still bleeding in some areas, pushed Piper on a gurney they stole from the first emergency responders, and Alex was meant to scout ahead.
They were only one corridor away, and Piper could already see Alex's steps beginning to alter, her direction going right and left, until she was leaning against the railings and sliding herself across. When they caught up to her, Piper being rolled to the front, they asked her what was wrong.
"I'm – I have to sleep, or – I'm super hungry too, I –" Alex's face was pale, her eyelids heavy. It looked like she wanted to throw up but there was nothing in her stomach, and her legs were falling over like jelly. "I'll be fine, though, let's just…let's just get out of here."
They pushed on a few more steps before Alex slumped against the railing, her cheek squished against the wall. The team made an executive decision to add Alex to Piper's gurney.
And Piper thought she felt bad.
It took a lot for Riley and Mags to lift Alex up to the gurney, but it looked like something they'd done before. Riley held Alex by her armpits and Mags had her feet, and Alex had one foot propped up as the helpful push to get her off the floor.
"Happens all the time," Riley sighed, shaking his head.
Piper furrowed her brows. Another thing to remember for later.
They laid Alex with her legs hanging off the edge of the gurney, her head on Piper's lap, who was sitting cross-legged on the top. She had one hand on the gurney and the other on Alex's head.
"Are…are you okay?" Piper asked, sounding hesitant for the first time, almost fearful of the cost of Alex's heroics on herself.
She'd been angry at Alex already, or she tried to be. In truth, she didn't know how to react. As soon as she saw Alex fight, she felt like her life was starting over again, more so than her life just simply 'not making sense'. No. This was a game-changer. This was a 'my life is changing and I'm watching it happen and I can't do anything about it' moment. Like that bus ride to the Grand Canyon. Her first storm-spirits. Jason. Being called a half-blood, and having a different meaning this time. Her mother showing up for the first time. Being a hero for the first time—
Piper clenched her fist around the side-handle of the gurney. Nothing would ever be in her control. She was sick of it.
Alex opened her eyes, but just barely. Her voice was groggy as she spoke. "You find out yet who…who killed that giant? Bill?"
"I don't know. I – I don't know." Piper yelped as Riley and Mags pushed them over a bump and the gurney shook.
"I…I dropped your sword."
"Mags got it."
"Your dagger?"
"I have it."
"The arrow?"
"Mags also has it."
"Mags has a lot of pockets, huh?"
"So many."
Alex chuckled. There was nothing but the sound of airport announcements, siren wails, and Piper's gurney wheeling down the corridor. Then:
"He was…he was all right, he shouldn't have died," Alex croaked. "I should've seen it coming."
"We'll take you to Tartarus and we'll bring him back, okay?"
"You're making fun of me."
"I'm not, I swear."
"You wanted me to kill him. I heard you. 'Can't let him go'."
Alex sighed, closing her eyes. A second later, she was fast asleep.
Piper continued holding her head in her lap.
The third thing that happened, was a mixture of a police chase, Alex's astounding ability to sleep through anything, and the messy ministrations of one Leo Valdez.
When it came to adventures and getting into trouble with mortal authorities, the usual plan was to escape before anyone even saw them. If it was her and Leo, for example, they would've escaped on Festus, and would've been chewing ambrosia before they even got back to camp. The amount of times they'd had to fly on the bronze dragon with blood seeping down her arm from a nasty cut, or with Leo knocked unconscious. But now that she was with another team…
Their escape looked more like a joyride.
Riley was actually whooping as they tried to roll their way out of the airport. Piper barely recognised the terminals and was unable to help at all, feeling halfway-sick as Riley and Mags propelled the gurney forwards, not caring where they went as long as it was AWAY from the airport security and policemen chasing them.
If they caught them, they would have to answer a lot of difficult questions and Piper didn't have enough energy to charmspeak the lot of them.
They whizzed through the food court and Riley and Mags made a silent decision to break up. Mags pointed at one of the many corridors leading out of the food court and Riley nodded, dodging forward and grabbing people's dinners along the way. A parkour across a jungle of tables and chairs.
He took a bag of McDonald's the cashier was handing to someone. A burrito also being handed to someone. A bag of chips. Just enough – for whatever reason, and then Riley headed to the corridor, meeting them there.
He threw the food onto Piper's lap, not caring if it hit Alex's head, and then continued pushing the gurney along with Mags.
Outside, the sun had already set and the night had shifted into navy blue, twinkling with lights from the city. No airplane seemed to be launching into the sky just yet. How long had it been since the attack? An hour? Maybe less? Maybe it was policy that all planes had to be grounded in the event of an emergency. But there was something moving out there in the sky. Something big, something shaped like a ship –
Piper murmured to herself, smirking. "You're shitting me."
The bow of an Argo ship was heading closer and closer to the windows. Piper's eyes widened.
"The –! The tarmac! Head for the tarmac!" she pointed furiously, unable to think of the word.
"Are you CRAZY, you want to crash this thing into what's probably three inches of fibregla –"
CRASH.
Another wing of the airport destroyed. The bow of the Argo ship slid along the glass windows, making everyone scream and scramble away. The ship kept turning until the bridge could dock against the floor of the terminal. Piper groaned. Did he have to?
The young man stood on the deck, right above the extending bridge, hands on his hips, flashing his signature smile.
"Ahoy! Did someone say –" More glass shattered as the Argo continued to slide along, making Leo wobble as the extending slid more to the left. He turned around, gesticulating. "Babe! Babe, you gotta stop it completely, you gotta park it –"
Piper breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Calypso's voice. "You didn't LABEL THIS RIGHT."
"…who the heck is this guy?" she heard Mags ask.
"Oh, this is Leo. This has gotta be Leo," Riley laughed.
"Might I suggest we skip the formalities and just GET ON –" Calypso was getting bossier by the year and, honestly, Piper didn't mind it.
"No, you're right, you're right – everyone!" Leo waved his arms like an airport worker signalling on the tarmac. "Onto the Argo III.5!"
Piper could barely keep her head up, the reality of her bruised ribs, bleeding head, and probably concussion, was finally hitting her. She felt the gurney being pushed forward, and then up the bumpy bridge, until it rolled to a halt on the deck of the –
"Argo III.5?" she croaked, knowing Leo was close by. She could smell the oil and scorch-marks.
"Aw, well, that's a pretty long story, Pipes – is that McDonald's?" He picked up the bag from her lap.
"No, that's for Alex –" exclaimed Riley, "she needs to eat when she wakes up –"
"Dude, don't worry, we have plenty of food, and we have ambrosia too."
"They're mortals, they can't eat ambrosia," Piper grumbled. She caught sight of Alex still in her arms. Better safe than sorry.
"Okay, seriously, everyone just needs to get on now. You're safe. I promise you."
The ship slowly lifted away from the airport, the shouts of the authorities and the wails of the sirens fading into the night. The gurney barely moved, Leo had probably installed some function on the decking that prevented things from sliding around. Someone took the remaining food from Alex's lap, and then she felt someone take Alex from her. Her hand was still on the girl's hair as she slipped away, and then her gurney started moving again.
Piper let her eyes begin to close as Leo talked and talked:
"…so the rest of the Hephaestus Cabin is working on the actual Argo III…"
The atmosphere felt cooler the more they rose up into the sky. Piper took a deep breath and exhaled.
"…and I thought, well, jeez, I still want my own, like, transportation-device thing and a car's pretty boring and I missed having an Argo to myself. And, y'know what, sue me for wanting a private vehicle for me and my close friends, my actual legit squad. We deserve an Argo III.5! And you know what else? Percy took us on a trip around New York again and I remembered how much I hated public transport…"
With the last of her energy, she lifted her hand to try and feel where Leo was. She managed to find his arm, pushing the gurney into the depths of the new Argo. The Argo III.5. Gods. But she smelt good food. Felt the warmth. Heard the rush of water. And with Leo around, she immediately felt safe.
"Supreme Commander of the Argo III.5," she smiled. "Dork. Missed you."
She felt Leo peck a kiss on the top of her head. "Missed you too."
A/N: i hope that wasn't too rushed? had to admit, i struggled with this chapter a little bit. I wasn't sure when to end it, and what to mention and all that, but I'm pretty happy with the final result ! I hope you are too !
thank you so much for the kind comments, they've really made my day! I'm glad people are enjoying FOTB as much as they are. stay tuned for more chapters !