Draco smirked when he saw Percy's jet black hair a ginger color with blue eyes and pale skin, "You look like a soulless ginger now Percy." He snickered when Percy dragged him to the nearest mirror, "Holly shit.." he heard Percy mutter as he checked himself in the mirror. "Come we got to hurry and get to the group," Draco said moving through the crowd of people.

3rd Person P.O.V.

After Percy and Draco managed to find the group and defeat the lion the General send as a distraction, they all headed to the van after Zoë accepted them into the group. Percy and Draco both shared their worries about still being in he van as Dr. Thorn had been following them without their knowledge. Soon the group found themselves in Washington D.C. in the subways.

oOo

Draco ran his hand through his hair, he didn't know what to think of Bianca anymore. He was angry at her for joining the hundreds and leaving Nico, but he understood that she just wanted to be able to feel and perhaps act as a child she wasn't able to be. It made Draco wonder if his mother left him because she was too young or did she just didn't want him in general. Another look into Bianca is the fact that she seems to be from the past, and if his suspicion is correct (which they were) she might've come from Lotus Hotel and Casino, a hotel Draco knew much about thanks to late experience. He wondered if Nico remembered anything from his time in the hotel or if he just had simply forgotten everything.

Draco decided not to dwell on that and focus on the problem ahead of them, they needed to free Artemis and if they can save Annabeth as well, but with how much obstacles he general placed, he didn't know how long it'll take to get there. 'Negative thoughts won't get us nowhere,' He thought, 'So quit thinking them.'

The group stopped talking when they noticed a limo being pulled up next to them. A man stepped out of the limo and when he did he called for Percy, the man's aura made Draco feel restless and angry. 'A gods aura,' he thought. 'And only one god can make someone restless and angry, Ares.' The god of war stood near the limos door as Percy talked to someone inside. After a while Percy finally stepped out of the limo and started to discuss with the god of war. "—Not bad, punk. But you got nothing on the master of taunts. I'll start the fight when I'm good and ready. Until then… Get lost," Draco heard the god say before they where all transported into a junkyard.

"Who wanted to talk to you in the limo, Percy?" Thalia asked. "Aphrodite," Percy muttered quietly. "Why would she want to talk to you though?" Bianca asked with a face full of confusion. "Oh, uh, not sure," Percy said looking at the side, "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up." Zoë narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray." Draco nodded with Zoë and loonies over to Thalia. "For once I agree with Zoe, you can't trust Aphrodite," Thalia said. "So, how do we get out of here?" Draco asked after a moment of silence. "That way, that is west," Zoë said rolling her eyes at Draco. "How can you tell?" Percy asked. "Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west." Zoë pointed west, then at the northern constellation, which was hard to make out because there were so many other stars. "Oh, yeah, the bear thingy," Percy said, Draco stifled a chuckle as Zoë looked offended, "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

"You act like it was real," Percy shot back his arms crossed a bit. "Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!" Draco turn around to see what Grover was pointing at, piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors. "Whoa," Bianca said, "That stuff… some of it looks like real gold." Thalia looked at the junk the at Bianca, "It is." She said grimly, "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods," Thalia said. "Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side, as if it had been split by an axe. "You call this junk?" Grover said as he proceeded to bite off a point and began to chew. "It's delicious!"

Thalia swatted the crown out of his hands. "I'm serious!" She said sounding annoyed. "Look!" Draco heard Bianca say as she raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!" She yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink, and became a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon. "It's just like Percys sword!" Zoë's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

"But—"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed," Zoë said firmly and Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down. "I don't like this place," Thalia said as she gripped the shaft of her spear. "As much as I want to explore this we should get going, the stuff in here was placed here for a reason," Draco said as he walked over to Bianca and look back at the group, tilting his head as saying 'Are-you-coming-or-what?' They started picking their way through the hills and valleys of junk. The stuff seemed to go on forever, and if it hadn't been for Ursa Major, they would've gotten lost. All the hills were identical copies of each other some stuff was different but it was hard to tell.

After a while they finally, saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of them, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. "What is that?" Bianca gasped. Draco looked ahead of them to see a hill much bigger and longer than the others. It was like a metal mesa, the length of a Quidditch field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together. Bianca frowned. "They look like—"

"Toes," Grover said. Bianca nodded. "Really, really large toes," she said nervously, Zoë and Thalia exchanged nervous looks. "Let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."

"But the road is right over there," Percy protested. "Quicker to climb over."

"Percy I don't think we should go there," Draco said as whatever was ahead of them was making both Thalia and Zoë nervous, was making him too.

Ping.

Thalia hefted her spear and Zoë drew her bow, Draco took out the sword he brought, but he realized it was only Grover. He had thrown a piece of scrap metal at the toes and hit one, making a deep echo, as if the column were hollow. "Why did you do that?" Zoe demanded. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?" Grover said cringing away from Zoë. "Come on we should just go around," Draco said and they started to walk around the pile weary glances turning to it once in a while. After several minutes of walking, they finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt. "We made it out," Zoe said. "Thank the gods." Just as Zoë said that Draco heard a crashing sound of metal scrapping metal behind them, startled everyone turned around. Behind them, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. Draco's heart thumped in his chest as he saw the pile turn into a more humanoid shape, 'Hephaestus guardian,' Draco realized. The thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armor. He gleamed wickedly in the moonlight as he looked down at them, staring at them with his deformed face. The left side was partially melted off. His joints creaked with rust, and across his armored chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words WASH ME. "Talos!" Zoe gasped.

Talos moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. The sound of it coming out of its sheath was horrible, metal screeching against metal. The blade was a hundred feet long, easy. The sword was rusty and old but getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a bunch of boldgers. "Someone took something," Zoe said. "Who took something?" She stared accusingly at Percy and Draco. Both raised their arms to show that they didn't have anything except their weapons. Bianca didn't say anythings but the look of guilt gave Draco the answer, the giant defective Talos took one step toward them, closing half the distance and making the ground shake. "Run!" Grover yelled.

They split up and as he ran Draco saw Thalia draw her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded in sparks and scattered across Thalia's path. Zoë's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed like a baby goat and went climbing up a mountain of metal Percy running at the direction close to him. That left Draco with Bianca who hid behind a broken chariot. "You took something and whatever you took just throw it down!" Draco whispered as he saw Bianca grip something in her hand, "It's too late she said." Draco look at her eyes serious, "What did. you take?" Before she could answer, Draco heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky. "Move!" Draco tore down the hill, Bianca right behind him, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where they had been hiding.

"Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and Draco. Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. Draco understood what Grover was going to do a split second before it happened. One of the poles with power lines still attached flew toward Talos's back leg and wrapped around his calf, the lines sparked and sent a jolt of electricity up the giant's backside. Talos whirled around, creaking and sparking. Grover had bought them a few seconds. "Come on!" Draco told Bianca, but she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god, "It… it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have." Draco was speechless that even in a time like this she still thought of her brother, it was then and there that Draco knew that even if she was a hunter she still cared for her brother. "Throw it down," Draco said softly. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone." She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened. The giant kept coming after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then I couldn't see him anymore. "No!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again. It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. That must've just pissed off the guardian even more as he made his way to Thalia.

He raised his foot to stomp and Draco saw that his sole was treaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole, and there were red words painted around it, which Draco could only make what they said after the foot came down: FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY. "Crazy-idea time," Draco said. Bianca looked at him nervously, "Anything." Draco told her about the maintenance hatch. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside," Draco said as he placed his sword back in place. Bianca looked at with worry, "How? You'll have to stand under its foot! You'll be crushed!" Draco stayed silent for a bit. "Distract it," Draco said. "I'll just have to time it right." Bianca's jaw tightened. "No. I'll go," She said with a look of pure determination, and if she was like Nico she won't stand down. But still she was Nico's sister and he made a promise to protect her, "You can't. You're new at this! You'll die!" Draco whispered. "It's my fault the monster came after us," she said. "It's my responsibility. Here." She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into Draco's hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him… tell him I'm sorry," she told him with a tearful smile, Draco couldn't help but compare her to his mother, they looked so alike... Draco snapped out of it and yelled, "Bianca, no!" But she charged at the monster's left foot. Thalia had its attention for the moment. She'd learned that the giant was big but slow. If you could stay close to it and not get smashed, you could run around it and stay alive. At least, it was working so far. Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight. Zoë yelled, "What are you doing?"

"Get it to raise its foot!" she said. Zoë shot an arrow toward the monster's face and it flew straight into one nostril. The giant straightened and shook its head. Draco saw Percy run up close to the guard, "Percy help me distract him!" Draco yelled and saw Percy nod at him. "Hey, Junk Boy!" Percy yelled, "Down here!" Percy ran up to its big toe and stabbed it with Riptide. The magic blade cut a gash in the bronze. Draco ran after Percy and grabbed him by the waist as Talos looked down at them and raised his foot to squash them like a bug. Draco didn't see what Bianca was doing, but he had to turn and run. The foot came down about two inches behind them and they were knocked into the air.

Draco fell into something hard and sat up, dazed. He alongside Percy had been thrown into an Olympus-Air refrigerator. The monster was about to finish them off, but Grover somehow dug himself out of the junk pile. He played his pipes frantically, and his music sent another power line pole whacking against Talos's thigh. The monster turned. Grover should've run, but he must've been too exhausted from the effort of so much magic. He took two steps, fell, and didn't get back up.

"Grover!" Thalia and Draco both ran toward him, but Draco knew they've been too late.

The monster raised his sword to smash Grover.

Then he froze.

Talos cocked his head to one side, like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, doing the Funky Chicken. Then he made a fist and punched himself in the face. "Go, Bianca!" Draco yelled. Zoë looked horrified. "She is inside?" The monster staggered around, and Draco realized they were still in danger. Thalia and Percy grabbed Grover and ran with him toward the highway. Zoe was already ahead of us. She yelled, "How will Bianca get out?"

The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines. "Look out!" Draco heard Percy yell, but it was too late. The giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. Draco hoped the inside was insulated, and Bianca was safe. The giant careened back into the junkyard, and his right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible CLANG! His left arm came loose, too. He was falling apart at the joints. Talos began to run. "Wait!" Zoë yelled. They ran after him, but there was no way they could keep up. Pieces of the robot kept falling off, getting in their way. The giant crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed. When they reached the wreckage we searched frantically, yelling Bianca's name. They crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. They searched until the sun started to rise, but no luck.

Zoë sat down and wept. Draco stood and look at junkyard, Bianca... Bianca was gone, he failed Nico, and he allowed her to go into Talon, he killed her.

Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giant's smashed face. "We can keep searching, it's light now. We'll find her," Percy said. "We won't," Draco said quietly. "It was supposed to happen," he whispered. "What are you talking about?" Percy demanded.

"The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain," Draco said with watery eyes that couldn't be seen, Bianca was gone, and it was all his fault. 'It should've been me..' Draco thought.

oOo

They found a tow truck that still had gas and rode it, "The skeletons are still out there." Draco didn't care much of the skeletons anymore he felt numb of the whole thing. The sunny weather and clear sky just made his mood worst Draco's grip tightened around the little figurine that had cost Bianca her life. Draco started at the figurine and almost cried when he saw the familiar face of the card that Nico gave him. Oh, gods… what was he going to tell Nico? Draco wasn't sure if he'll ever be able to look at Nico in the eye if he survived this quest. Draco had to ignore that thought for now Bianca's sacrifice won't be in vain besides his friends needed him at the moment, he can deal with his emotions later.

The group stopped as a tire gave up on them. "Great, what now?" Thalia asked.

Draco scanned the horizon. There wasn't much to see. Desert in all directions, occasional clumps of barren mountains plopped here and there. The canyon was the only thing interesting. The river itself wasn't very big, maybe fifty yards across, green water with a few rapids, but it carved a huge scar out of the desert. The rock cliffs dropped away below them. "There's a path," Grover said, "We could get to the river." Draco tried to see what he was talking about, and finally noticed a tiny ledge winding down the cliff face. "That's a goat path," Percy said. "So?" Grover asked. "The rest of us aren't goats," Percy deadpanned. "We can make it," Grover said. "I think." Draco shook his head, "Yeah, I'm going walking one wrong step there and it's bye-bye to us, let's go farther upstream instead," Draco said as he turned around.

"But—"

"Come on," Percy said cutting of Grover. "A walk won't hurt us." They followed the river about half a mile before coming to an easier slope that led down to the water. On the shore was a canoe rental operation that was closed for the season, but Percy left a stack of golden drachmas on the counter and a note saying IOU two canoes. "We need to go upstream," Zoë said. It was the first time she had talked since the junkyard, and Draco was worried about how bad she sounded, like somebody with the flu. "The rapids are too swift."

"Leave that to me," Percy said. We put the canoes in the water. Thalia pulled Percy to the side, and Draco pretended he didn't hear what they were saying, at least they're getting along now. They came back and everyone rode the canoe.

oOo

They walked around the little plaza of the Hoover Dam. They saw mortals rub the toes of one of the statues before Zoë said "Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoë said. "We should eat while we can." Grover cracked a smile. "The dam snack bar?" Zoë blinked. "Yes, what is funny?" She asked. "Nothing," Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. "I could use some dam french fries." Even Thalia smiled at that. "And I need to use the dam restroom."

Maybe it was the fact that they were so tired and strung out emotionally, but Draco started cracking up, and Percy, Thalia, and Grover joined in, while Zoe just looked at us. "I do not understand," She deadpanned. "I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said. "And…" Thalia tried to catch her breath. "I want to buy a dam T-shirt." Draco busted up, but both Percy and Grover stopped laughing. Instead Grover was looking around, confused. "Did I just hear a cow?" He asked. "A dam cow?" Thalia laughed and Draco chuckled at that. "No," Grover said. "I'm serious." Zoë listened. "I hear nothing." Thalia was looking at Percy with concern, "Percy, are you okay?" Percy nodded and said he just wanted to talk a small walk and check something out. They nodded and walked up to the dam snack bar, hopefully everything gets better...

Aaaaaaannnnddd done! I apologize that this took a while I had school projects that I have (and still have) to finish, don't worry I'm almost done with them. Anyways thank you for understanding, and see you in the next chapter bye~

D.