Chapter 5: Rain Dance and Daaammmm

~On the Train~

3rd Person POV

The group woke up with plenty of time before the train came to a stop and so they had a quick breakfast together as they tried to locate exactly where they ended up. The train halted and the five of them hopped off, well rested from the night of traveling. "Any clue where we are?" Thalia asked as they all looked around.

"Arizona," Percy said as he looked around. "We're near the junkyard aren't we?" he asked Zoe and she nodded. "The junkyard?" Bianca asked this time. "Yeah, the Junkyard of the Gods. Hephaestus basically throws all this scraps out. It's enchanted too so don't take anything from it," Percy finished and Grover started to freak out.

"Grover, what's wrong?" Thalia asked worriedly. "Pan," he whispered and Zoe and Percy's eyes widened. "Who's Pan?" Thalia asked and Zoe slapped her palm to her forehead. "He's the Lord of the Wild. They said he's disappeared. Many think he's faded," Zoe added and on cue, a boar stepped into sight of the group.

Zoe gaped at the beast again and Grover started dancing a happy jig and cheering. Thalia drew her spear, but Percy lowered it with his hand gently. "That's the Erymanthian Boar!" Zoe yelled and Grover followed suit. "A gift from Pan!" he hollered and whooped.

Eventually, the group found a way to mount the boar and take it for a ride all the way to the Junkyard of the Gods. The ride dragged on and not much conversation was had except for Grover mainly talking to himself and the boar about Pan.

Finally, they arrived at the junkyard and Zoe turned around again and reminded everyone. "Nobody. Touch. Anything."

Bianca POV

We were walking through the junkyard and looking at everything that it held. There was a lot of cool stuff, but also a lot of it was random. We had just set foot in the junkyard when I heard the clattering of bones again and I whipped around with my bow drawn. The others noticed this and did the same.

"Sparti," I said and they appeared. I launched a dozen arrows at them to slow them down, before drawing my hunting knives. I saw Percy do the same thing out of the corner of my eye and Thalia with her spear.

I charged the first one that the arrows slowed down and dispatched him with a slash to the throat before spinning under a strike from a second and lodging my knife in its head. Percy began to parry attacks right to my right side and created an opening for me. "Bianca!" he yelled when he was done and I slipped in and drove my knife home true.

We repeated this process with the remaining sparti and luckily only got a few scrapes from each that were patched up with a little bit of nectar. Then we proceeded making our way through the junkyard. I found myself thinking of Nico and how he was doing; what he was even doing and if he enjoyed camp. I still felt a little guilty about leaving him, but it wasn't like I was never going to see him again.

That's when I noticed the little figurine out of the corner of my eye. Mythomagic was the game that Nico was so obsessed with all about the Greek world, before we even knew that we were a part of it. 'Hades. Ironic, seeing as he's our father and it was the one statue that Nico didn't have,' I thought as I subtly reached down and pocketed it as a gift and a "I'm sorry" for joining the Hunt.

We were nearly out of the Junkyard of the Gods when the ground began to shake the the sound of creaking metal reverberated in the air. 'Di Immortales!' I screamed at myself.

3rd Person POV

"Who took something?!" Zoe yelled and looked at the group who all held their hands up but Bianca. "Bianca, what did you take?" Percy asked through clenched teeth. "I-It was the only one he didn't have," she said as she held out the Hades figurine. Zoe and Percy muttered a string of curses each under their breath and a 30-foot tall hunk of metal rose from the piles of junk.

"It's a Talos prototype! Scatter!" Zoe yelled to the group and they all did so. Grover picked up anything he could get his hands on and threw it at the giant as he swung his sword around trying to hit the others. Zoe, Percy and Bianca were firing endless arrows at it, trying to exploit potential weak spots to no avail and Thalia was launching lightning at the thing.

"There's got to be a way inside!" Zoe yelled as Thalia dodged another swing of the sword and as she did so, she noticed the hatch under it's left foot. "Percy! Can you get it to raise it's left foot?" Thalia yelled at Percy and he looked at Zoe. His eyes said "I'm sorry about this," as he rolled under the giant rusted sword and stomped his foot on the ground.

The earth began to shake violently and the Talos knock-off tried desperately to steady itself, allowing it's left foot to come up just enough. Before Thalia could run to get to the hatch, Bianca tossed the figurine to Percy. "Give that to Nico for me and tell him I said I was sorry and I'll always love him," she said and shoved Thalia out of the way before entering the hatch herself.

Percy POV

At Bianca's words, my heart sank. 'No. You can't, Bianca! NO!,' echoed through my mind as I saw her disappear into the robot's foot. I hardly even registered Zoe and Thalia's yelling as they dragged me toward the exit. I broke free momentarily to run back to get Bianca when the Talos started shorting out.

Before I could smile and revel in her victory, the robot made contact with the power lines. "BIANCA! NO!" I yelled and watched in horror as the sparks grew and grew until the prototype finally exploded. I collapsed on my knees, clutching the Hades statue as the tears fell silently from a blank expression.

I had lost sisters over my years with the Hunt and it always hurt. No matter how long they were with us; it hurt. And losing Bianca hurt more than I could put into words. I didn't know how long I sat there for, but Thalia sat with me in silence as tears streamed both of our faces and Zoe came back some time later with a truck to move us along.

I sat in the bed of the truck alone in silence; wondering what I could have done better. 'I should've used my powers right away. I could have saved her. It's my fault. I let her die. I'm a monster,' played in my mind on repeat for most of the trip. 'I can't lose Zoe too. Enough of the losing,' I finally thought as self pity continued to well in my heart and Thalia joined me in the bed of the truck.

Thalia POV

"How are you?" I asked quietly and then hated myself for asking such a stupid question. "I should've done more," he said softly, but void of any emotion. I grabbed his hand and told him, "You did all you could, Percy. Actually you did more than I thought you could." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Care to share where you got that ability you used to get Talos to raise his foot?" I asked quietly enough to make sure Grover didn't hear since I could feel Zoe's eyes on me. He absently played with the statue in his hands, but remained silent. "You're a Son of Poseidon, aren't you?" I finally ripped the bandaid off and he finally looked at me though with clenched teeth.

"No. I'm a Hunter of Artemis," he said and I rolled my eyes. "You know what I meant… I get why you don't want it to be known and I won't tell anyone, but at least admit it to me," I said to him and he was quiet for a moment again. "Fine… for all technical logic, I am a biological product of Poseidon," he whispered and I took that as my victory.

"Good. Now admit that you did everything that you could to save Bianca and her...disappearance and or death is not your fault," I said and he looked at me with narrowed eyes again and his lips pressed into a thin line, but he nodded. 'Good enough for me,' I thought.

I squeezed his hand one last time and let go and he looked at me. "Don't worry. At least you're not the Child of Prophecy," I said and he had the look of complete befuddlement on his face. "What's that?" he asked and it was my turn to gape. "You don't know?" I whispered and before I could say anything, Zoe slammed on the breaks and gave me a look I will forever fear.

"Thalia, can you drive? I need to rest," she asked sweetly though I know there was nothing sweet about it. I nodded and we switched spots and continued the journey.

Zoe POV

"Stop that," I said as soon as I hopped in the back with Percy. "Stop what?" he asked, but didn't look at me. "Stop blaming yourself for Bianca's death. You did all you could with the restrictions on your powers," I said and his head snapped up in fury. "Don't you dare," he nearly growled at me. "The restrictions on my powers? Don't you dare suggest that me remaining undiscovered is more important than a life; than one of our sister's lives," he hissed and I felt a tinge of guilt.

"I miss her too, Percy. But it was in the prophecy. 'One shall be lost in the land without rain.'," I told him gently but he wasn't having it. "Yeah. 'LOST' Zoe. That doesn't mean dead and a monster like me could've survived that and met up with you all later," he said and I grew irritated and slapped him for the second time since he joined the Hunt (the first he said something he didn't realize is rude to a lady).

"Don't you dare take away from our sister's sacrifice. She died so that you may live and she will achieve Elysium for it. Do not tarnish that with your self-pity. Neither of you was expendable, but no one can escape Fate," I hissed at him with tears in my own eyes. "Yeah and what about the Child of Prophecy? What's that all about and why haven't I heard of it?" he asked bitterly and I didn't have an answer for him.

Luckily for me, we arrived at the Hoover Dam and I could avoid the topic for the time being.

3rd Person POV

The group arrived at the Hoover Dam and decided to finally get some food instead of the rations they had packed.

"C'mon Grover, let's go to the dam snackbar," Thalia said and Grover erupted into laughter. "What?" Thalia asked and then realized what she had said and laughed as well. Zoe and Percy even let a small smile grace their faces, though they were still grieving and Percy was still mad at Zoe.

Percy felt the urge to go over to the edge and look into the water and he noticed something splashing around. "What is that?" Thalia asked beside him and he shrugged. "Some cow… eel… fish type creature, I guess," was Percy's reply. "She kinda looks like a Bessie," Thalia said randomly and Percy just looked back and forth between the two. "Yeah… I guess she does," he said before continuing toward the snack bar. That was when he heard the clattering.

'Shit,' he thought as he whipped around to see another half-dozen sparti. "I'll lead them down to the generators and lose them down there and meet you all back up here," he said and took off before he could get any protests.

He ran down to the generator level and bumped into a redhead with frizzy hair and freckles galore. "Oof sorry about that," he said to her and helped her up. "It's alright. Don't-" she stopped apologizing and looked at his shoulder. "Why are you, like 14 with a sword on your back?" she asked and Percy stared at her in shock for a moment. "That's an umbrella," he said hastily." She narrowed her eyes, "No, that's definitely a sword. Looks like a katana," she said and Percy deadpanned.

He heard the clattering again and wasted no time. "Long story short: not all myths are just myths. There's skeleton things chasing me, just ignore them and they'll leave you alone. If we ever meet again, I'll explain everything," he said in a hurry and ran off.

The girl was about to roll her eyes when she saw said skeleton creatures and looked back for the boy, but he was already gone. Percy ducked through crowds and hid briefly with a tour group when the guide called out to him.

"Young man, is everything alright?" she asked and she had blonde hair and stark gray eyes that looked familiar to Percy. "Yeah, just in a bit of a jam and looking for a way out of it," he said as he looked around frantically. "Well, have the wisdom to keep an open mind and there's always a way out. Maybe ask a Guardian Angel for help," she said and Percy whipped around to face her.

'Gray eyes. Wisdom. Athena,' Percy thought as he rapidly connected the dots. "If you could buy me some time from those things so I can go save your daughter Milady, that would be great," he said and Athena blinked in surprise before he vanished into the crowd, leaving her wide-eyed and gaping.

'Those eyes… Another sea-spawn? Interesting,' she mused as she waved her hands and bought them some time.

Percy POV

'Probably not the wisest move to address Athena that way, but too late now. Guardian Angel?' I thought as I ran outside and joined the rest of the group. "Percy! Where are they?" Zoe asked me. "Ran into Athena. She bought some time, but they'll be on us in a moment. There's a way out of here we just need to-" I stopped talking when I realized where we were standing.

'Guardian Angel. Nice Athena,' I chuckled internally. "Need to, what?" Thalia asked and I grabbed her shoulders. "Pray to your father," I said and they all looked at me weird. "These statues," I said as I pointed, "are automatons. I can feel the traces of godly energy. Wings makes them your dad's domain, so pray to him to activate them and take us to San Francisco," I said and looked back to the crowds and drew my hunting knives.

"Hurry please. The sparti are coming back," I said and Thalia closed her eyes and prayed. I was getting nervous that the plan wasn't going to work and I was going to curse Athena, when they sprang to life. 'Thank gods. Thank you, Athena.' I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yo! I'm Hank. That's Chuck. Where are we going?" one of the angels asked. "San Francisco please!" Thalia squeaked as Hank grabbed her and Grover and Chuck grabbed Zoe and I and took off into the sky. 'Poor Thalia. Afraid of heights and I'm positive this isn't easy after Uncles Apollo's chariot,' I thought to myself as the land below us blurred past.

'On to the West Coast and I'm certain after the Hoover Dam, I'm going to be called in front of the Council. I'm sorry Bianca and I already miss you,' I thought as I closed my eyes to catch some much needed z's.

AN: Chapter 5 done! Next chapter is going to be a heartbreaker. Until next time!