Chapter 5- Endings That Fit (part one)
Important! I no longer have a computer suitable for typing out these chapters. I am now forced to do this on my phone, which is much harder. So sorry if there are any typos or grammar issues. I can't even indent. First world problems here! Thank you theflashfan0061 for the review, it makes me happy that you are enthusiastic about this story. Also thanks to Dawn.justice for reviewing. I mixed up two parts of the trials of Apollo. Leo was there with the blemmyae (I think they're called that?). I meant in the beginning of the Hidden Oracle when Percy escorts Meg and Apollo to camp and the nosoi (plague spirits) are after them. To your question about who the god is… that's a mystery (;
The Pirates game was fun. I don't know who won. I didn't watch it. Honestly, who watches baseball games when they go to a baseball game? I just spectated these two drunk guys who sat in front of me. These yinzers taught me some new curses to try out. They are banned from the ballpark now.
Me and Thalia stayed at a cheap hotel there in Pittsburgh. Apollo gave us money but I grew up poor so I still tend to try to save money. I slept on the floor in a pile with no blankets and a single pillow while Thalia got the bed so maybe it wasn't worth it though.
Currently, we were chilling in the car as it drove us to Indianapolis. There we can see Leo and Calypso at the "waystation" is what it's called. I'm excited and nervous, just like every other reunion except for Thalia.
There's still some stuff I need to know though… despite how hard it will be to hear. "Thalia?" I asked.
She turned from looking out her window to looking at me. "Ye?" She grunted. In a feminine way…
"I need to know. How did everyone, er, die?" A cold sweat started dripping down the side of my head.
"Are you sure you want to know Percy. You'll find out on your own eventually when you're better prepared to handle it. They're all pretty devastating. It hurt my very soul at each and every death of our friends." She said, keeping eye contact with me the entire time.
"No. I need to know, Thals. Tell me. Tell me how they died. I'm good at grieving, I've had experience."
She snickered. "Can relate to that. Ok I will. Don't say I didn't warn you."
"I won't hold you liable. Should I sign something?" She didn't laugh. She just went straight into the story.
"I'll start with Jason. He died the next spring after you disappeared. He died helping Apollo."
Flashback
(Disclaimer: I did not write this. This is taken out of Rick Riordan's book The Burning Maze in his "Trials of Apollo" series.)
Apollo POV
We all should have died in the blast. Of that I'm certain. But Jason channeled the explosion up, down, and sideways in a two dimensional wave--blasting through the port and starboard walls; bursting through the black ceiling that showered us with golden candelabras and swords; jackhammering through the mosaic floor into the bowels of the ship. The yacht groaned and shook--metal, wood, and fiberglass snapping like bones in the mouth of a monster.
The break in the floor began to widen, cutting us off from Jason. Ten-foot-tall waterfalls poured in from the damaged hull to port and starboard--washing the mosaic floors in dark water and flotsam, spilling into the widening chasm in the center of the room. Below, broken machinery steamed. Flames guttered as seawater filled the hold. Above, lining the edges of the shattered ceiling, pandai appeared, screaming and drawing weapons--until the sky lit up and tendrils of lightning blasted the guards into dust.
Jason stepped out of the smoke on the opposite side of the throne room, his gladius in his hand.
Caligula snarled. "You're one of those Camp Jupiter brats, aren't you?"
"I'm Jason Grace," he said. "Former praetor of the Twelfth Legion. Son of Jupiter. Child of Rome. But I belong to both camps."
"Good enough," Caligula said. "I'll hold you responsible for Camp Jupiter's treason tonight. Incitatus!"
The emperor snatched up a golden spear that was rolling across the floor. He vaulted onto his stallion's back, charged across the chasm, and leaped it in a single bound. Jason threw himself aside to avoid getting trampled.
Piper shouted at Jason. She might have been saying COME ON! But all that came out was a guttural cry.
Jason was a little busy. He dodged Incitatus's charge, parrying Caligula's spear with his sword, but he was moving slowly. I could only guess how much energy he'd expended controlling the winds and the lightning.
"Get out of here!" He called to us. "Go!"
An arrow sprouted from his left thigh. Jason grunted and stumbled. Above us, more pandai had gathered, despite the threat of severe thunderstorms.
Piper yelled in warning as Caligula charged again. Jason just managed to roll aside. He made a grabbing gesture at the air, and a gust of wind yanked him aloft. Suddenly he sat astride a miniature storm cloud with four funnel clouds for legs and a mane that crackled with lightning--Tempest, his ventus steed.
He rode against Caligula, jousting sword versus spear. Another arrow took Jason in the upper arm.
"I told you this isn't a game!" Yelled Caligula. "You don't walk away from me alive!"
I watched in horror as Jason and Caligula fought, Jason bleeding from arrows in each limb now, yet somehow still able to raise his sword. The space was too small for two men on horses, yet they circled one another, trading blows. Incitatus kicked at Tempest with his golden-shod front hooves. The ventus responded with bursts of electricity that scorched the stallion's white flanks.
As the former praetor and emperor charged past each other, Jason met my eyes across the ruined throne room. His expression told me his plan with perfect clarity. Like me, he had decided that Piper McLean would not die tonight. For some reason, he had decided that I must live too.
He yelled again, "GO! Remember!"
I was slow, dumbstruck. Jason held my gaze a fraction of a second too long, perhaps to make sure that last work sank in: remember--the promise he had extracted from me a million years ago this morning, in his Pasadena dorm room.
While Jason's back was turned, (Thalia made a point to call the Roman emperor Caligula a coward, and a good for nothing p*ssy when she got to this point in the story) Caligula wheeled about. He threw his spear, driving it's point between Jason's shoulder blades. Piper screamed. Jason stiffened, his blue eyes wide in shock.
He slumped forward, wrapping his arms around Tempest's neck. His lips moved, as if he was whispering something to his steed.
Jason toppled from his steed. He hit the deck facedown, the spear still in his back, his gladius clattering from his hand.
"I warned you," Caligula said. Then he glanced at the pandai above. "Leave Apollo alive. He's no threat. But kill the girl."
Piper howled, shaking with impotent rage. I stepped in front of her and waited for death, wondering with Cold detachment where the first arrow might strike. I watched as Caligula plucked out his spear, then drove it again into Jason's back, removing any last hope that our friend might still be alive.
Flashback End
(Back to my own writing)
Percy POV
"My gods." I said quietly. "Poor Jason. Poor, poor Piper." My eyes were watery, but I held them in. It was going to get much worse.
"You're disappearance was the beginning of the end of Percy. For everyone. Within months Jason, my brother, died. Piper follows soon after. I was miserable after this I'll have you know. Annabeth took it like a punch to the gut, and then waved it off. You were her priority. If Piper had Annabeth though, if Annabeth had known it was hopeless. Maybe Piper wouldn't have died. Hazel didn't know what to do." Thalia said. She had no tears as well. She had already grieved for everyone.
"At least he had an honorable death, protecting people. It obviously changed Apollo for the better."
"That's right. My brother is a hero. No one can take that from him."
We sat in silence for a few more minutes before I was ready to hear about the next death. "Piper followed next." I motioned for her to start.
"What? Oh right. Piper had no one watching her at her father's place in Oklahoma. Long story, they were basically robbed. So when her father forces her to go to camp. It might have already been too late."
Flashback
Hazel POV
Jason's death upset us all. Me and Frank were close to him. We grieved just as we did for Percy. Annabeth had help grieving, and she has determination and grit. The world was getting to Piper. I could see it when I was finally able to see her for the first time after Jason. They had broken up, but he was obviously important to her. They were close. Not Percy and Annabeth close, but they had a bond. A Ross and Rachel esque bond. Except Jason died before they could get back together. The bastard. Wish he didn't do that.
For awhile, at the start of the summer we knew something was up with her. She would disappear for hours, she slept for long periods of time, she was anti-social, and when she did talk she wasn't fully there. It scared me and Frank. Annabeth wasn't there to help. Leo and Calypso had already visited her, before she got into her habit as we would find out later, so they weren't here. They were busy living their new life. Frank was a praetor though, so he still had demigod business. But we could take time off to come see Piper. We were basically her only good friends.
Our first encounter with Piper and her habit was a little after our first week staying at camp half blood. We were going to be there for a month. Piper wouldn't live to see the end of that month. I still don't know what me and Frank could have done. Drug addictions were not nearly as common when I lived. And when an addict appeared, we treated as if they didn't exist. It was taboo. Kind of like sex. Sex is much more open nowadays. Freaks me out.
There were two Aphrodite girls standing just out front and to the side of their cabin. It didn't look like normal Aphrodite gossiping though. They were peaking in quickly and looking through the window, and had pale faces. One was biting nails, the other twirling hair. Nervous ticks.
Frank and I walk up to them. "What's wrong?" I ask sweetly.
They turn around so fast they could have gotten whiplash. "It's Hazel!" One of them shouts.
"Is there a problem?" Frank asks.
"It's Piper! Please, we don't know what to do. Go in and help her! Make her stop. It's scaring everyone in the cabin." The same girl says urgently.
Me and Frank, worried, rush in through the front door to the right. When we step in, we see Piper put something under her pillow.
"Hey guys." She squeaks quietly.
"What do you have, Piper." Frank says. "We saw you put something under the pillow."
"I didn't put anything under the pillow. See." Then she picks up the pillow that she didn't put anything under.
"The other pillow." I growl as me and Frank step closer.
She realizes she lost, and picks up the pillow. All I see is an opened bottle of pills. "It's just pills. Why did you feel the need to hide-" I start.
"Piper." Frank says. "You're, er, taking pills?" This is obviously something I'm not aware of in the modern world. I would find out later of course why it was such a big issue.
"Yes it's for my depression. I've been struggling since Jason has died."
Frank bumbles around like an idiot for the rest of the time, while I stayed silent. Neither one of us knew how to deal with the situation. He told me why it could be a bad situation, and I understood. She probably wasn't taking the pills in moderation if she felt the need to hide them.
The rest of the time, we made Piper a priority. But it was hard to hang out with her. She either cried or showed no emotion, or had a dopey smile and didn't respond to our voices.
It kept on getting progressively worse. But we didn't know how to deal with it. We were planning on telling Chiron, and to get Mr.D's help as the god of madness, but we were too late. I'm such an IDIOT! Her death is my fault. I should have done something. But I treated it as if I didn't know because I was scared.
After dinner one day, I was walking back to the Hades cabin. Nico was still eating, and I had just kissed Frank --on the lips-- goodnight. I opened the door, and there on the floor of my cabin was Piper. Laying still as a rock. I have no clue when she could have wandered in here. Why is she here?
I get on my knees next to her. "Piper?" I ask with a worried edge to my voice. I prod her with my finger. I hear a small moan.
I roll her over on her back, and I gasp when I see her face. A white foam was coming out of her mouth. This was bad.
She grabs my hand weakly and pulls me in. I'm shaking. She whispers to me. "P-please… I… I don't-" and then she starts thrashing around. She loses control of her body. I back away and start screaming for help and crying. I didn't know what to do. I barely knew anything about how to deal with the injured or unhealthy.
I just stared at Piper as she experienced a seizure. Obviously from overdosing on those pills I was scared to talk to her about.
No one had come yet, not surprising, we were one of the first to leave dinner. No one was likely around the cabins. Unfortunately.
Then she stopped. Her body stopped. I went down to check on her and her heart is STOPPED. Her pulse is stopped. Her breathing is stopped. Her body stopped. Piper was dead. Oh god she died and it's all my fault.
I heard a knock at the door and some voices outside, but I was too shocked to go and get it. My friend just died right in front of me.
I sat there for around 5 minutes, maybe longer, before I finally took control of myself and ran out of the cabin. Will Solace, Nico's boyfriend, was just walking to his cabin luckily.
"Will! Will! Oh god! Please follow!" I shouted at him. I was still crying. I ran back to my cabin and he ran after me. I pointed at Piper for him.
"Oh f*ck!" He checks for a pulse and then runs out of the cabin to gather people and supplies.
I was too shocked to focus on anything going on around me. I just sat down on a bed, it wasn't even mine, and cried into my hands. I'm a demigod, I know death. I'm the daughter of death. I've had friends die, but that was in combat. This is somehow worse. A person taken by themselves. Overcome by sadness. It was horrible. This was true evil.
Eventually a big pair of arms picked me up, and I cried into that until I got the nerve to hope for a bad dream. I pinched myself, and that renewed my crying. I'm supposed to be strong.
Flashback End
Percy POV
Now I was crying. She was right. That was somehow worse than Jason's death. Jason was brutally murdered, and Piper was murdered by herself with the help of doctors and pharmaceuticals.
"This is torture Thalia." I said between tears.
"I can stop."
"No. No. I need you to keep going."
"Well, Annabeth died next."
"This is all f"cked."
To be continued! I've been busy and also procrastinating, I'm sorry. I have decided to split this chapter into two parts. It was taking me awhile to get the motivation to write. Hopefully part two will come out this week as well. Again, I'm sorry for grammar issues, this was typed on my phone. I also apologize if I portrayed addiction wrong. My mother was an addict, but that was nearly ten years ago and I was young. I don't remember it hardly at all. I've been affected by addiction, but I can't say I know addiction or what it's like. I did my best to portray it, and I hope you see that. Drugs and alcohol are horrible things and it's an epidemic. Anyways, please review. See you in part two.