Sorry for the late update… again. But I had a dance competition yesterday. (I had to quit Science Olympiad AGAIN for it… just like last year) We got High Gold and First Place in our division!

Sorry for typos/OOCness! This is pretty fast-paced, so no comments about it. I needed them to get out of this situation so I could actually get the story moving along.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 28

Jason

Jason sure hadn't seen that one coming.

He and his friends were near the trees, hiding behind the foliage and grabbing onto the trunks for dear life. Jason had lived in California his entire life and was completely used to earthquakes. But this was a whole different type of magnitude than the small ones he had been through, and it sort of scared him more than Triton.

One of his hands was around Piper's shoulders. They hadn't had time to run back inside, and Jason was pretty sure it wouldn't have been that safe. With this type of earthquake the house could've easily collapsed on them.

They were crouched on the ground. Jason had one hand over his head in case anything from the trees decided to fall on top of him. All at once, however, the shaking just stopped. There was a creepy silence filled with shock, and Jason was the first to stand up out of the trees.

He was completely flabbergasted. No lie. There was an actually crack between the sand, showing that the ground had indeed been ripped apart. He could see Triton's hands gripping the edges for dear life, even though he was a god.

At the edge of the chasm was Nico. His binds were gone, and there was this look of horror on his face. Nico glanced over and jumped back when he saw Jason, almost into the abyss.

"I swear, I didn't mean to do it," Nico said quietly as Jason approached, but he sounded unsure of himself. Jason didn't have any idea what he was talking about, but he intended to take advantage of the situation.

He reached down and hauled Triton up. He stuck and arm around his neck and put him in a head lock. Of course, it was a stupid move, since Triton was a god and Jason definitely was not. But Triton was shaken up and probably just as frightened as they were. He didn't even fight back except for a few meek kicks and curses.

The tide did react to the situation, as they rolled up to his ankles and tugged him down into the ocean.

"Now, tell us what we need to know before I throw you down there myself," Jason thundered, and just for extra effect, he sent sparks down his fingers and electrocuted the god a little. He jolted and shuddered.

"If you're trying to get back to Greece, then good luck," he laughed, his voice hoarse. Jason squeezed his neck a little bit, and he choked. "The gates are tricky, you know. Even I don't know everything about them. Maybe you should just go jump inside of a volcano. Ha… a leap of faith."

He was not amused. Triton tried to cough out a laugh. "I think that's a good idea actually. Jump into a volcano." He jerked his head towards the trees, across the island. He winked. "Maybe it'll do something."

Jason growled at him, but Triton disappeared. Like, completely. There wasn't even a trace of him left. Jason's arm was around nothing.

"Great," he hissed with anger. He turned around to where everyone had finally left the sanctuary of the trees. "That's fantastic. He was lying to us the entire time. We should've known that. He just left after he lost and didn't even tell us where to go."

"What did he say before he poofed?" asked Leo.

"He said to go jump in a volcano and take a leap of faith. Then he laughed and disappeared."

Piper seemed to consider it for a minute. "Maybe he was telling us the truth," she suggested, eyeballing the destruction in the ground.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Frank.

"Well, to find the first Gate of No Return, we fell down into those catacombs or whatever by accident and had to find our way all by ourselves. What if to find these doors, we have to jump into volcano?" She looked unsure.

Everyone stared at her. Jason thought she was crazy. But then Leo said, "Maybe you are right. I'll jump into the volcano if it would make you guys feel any better. I don't think it would hurt me that much." He ran a hand through his mess of hair and shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, I don't see why it wouldn't work."

Hazel sighed and grabbed Leo's and Piper's shoulders. Shaking them a little, she said what they were all thinking. Or, what Jason was thinking. "Okay, let me knock some sense into you guys. Volcanoes. Kill. People. End of story. It was probably just a threat that Triton was making."

Piper ignored her and turned to Leo. "Well, if you guys aren't going to help us, then Leo and I will just o do it ourselves." Piper pointed to where Triton had gestured before.

"Absolutely not," Jason cut in. "You guys are crazy. I bet this is exactly what he was trying to get us to do. Tell us to make a leap of faith, which to him his just jumping into a volcano and killing yourself."

"I don't see you coming up with any better ideas," Leo pointed out.

"Um, how about NOT jumping into a volcano and living a little longer."

Piper turned to Frank, who hadn't said a word the entire time. "Well, what do you say?" asked Piper, but Frank didn't answer. He shook his head vigorously, and Leo rolled his eyes. "Don't ask Frank," Leo said. "If it has anything to do with fire or burning, he is totally out of it."

Piper sighed and turned to Nico. "And what do you say?"

Nico was staring at his feet. He was mumbling something. "What?" Piper asked. "I didn't catch that."

"I said it is all my fault," Nico answered. Jason was getting ready to ask him what, but he cut him off with a wave of his hand. "All of this, it is all my doing, and I have no idea how I did it." He gestured to the crack in the ground, the down trees.

"Nico, it's not," Hazel told him softly.

"You don't understand, you guys," Nico mumbled. "I did that! That right there, that giant earthquake! That was all me because I let my anger get the best of me, like I always do…"

Jason slowly began to realize what he was saying. It made sense. He had already seen Nico do that in Piper's house. He had let his fear and anger help him cause a giant earthquake to stop Triton and save them. Jason was grateful and a little freaked out at the same time.

"But to Piper's question, why not try? We've got nothing better, and we can let Leo go first to see if it safe."

"Well, there you go," Piper said. "Half yes, half no. Let's just all go and if we decide against it, no harm done. We can just go to the airport and try to find plane tickets somewhere or search the rest of the island for the gate. No, we are wasting precious time, so I'm going to the house of get ready. Follow me if you're in on it or not."

Piper turned away from Jason, her mind clearly set. Jason watched her, Leo, and Nico walk away, and then Hazel follow them. "Whoa, Hazel," Jason said. "What are you doing?"

Hazel stopped and looked at him. "Let's just give it a try. I don't agree, but whatever." She followed them, and so did Frank, even though he looked terrified and was shaking. Jason was finally alone, and because of that, he had no choice but to follow them.

Jason couldn't bring himself to look down the beach to where all of the people had been. He adverted his eyes when he got close. He heard someone scream and he ripped open his eyes. The people there we startled. The volleyball nets had fallen down. He saw some limp bodies, suggesting that people had fainted. There was nothing he could do about it though.

He just walked up the old boards to Piper's house. He passed her pool and envied her for a second.

Once inside, he saw everyone else running around, collecting things. Piper walked by and smiled when she saw him. "Did you finally come to your senses and decide to join us?"

"I felt stupid standing there alone," Jason admitted. Piper pushed a bag into his arms, telling him that he'd need this.

Jason roamed the house a little bit. It was huge and still confused him. But he pulled cans out of the cupboard and bottles of water. He got some matches and even a box of cards.

He still thought it was a stupid idea. Were there even any volcanoes on Kauai? He was pretty sure that there weren't, but he didn't say anything because he had never been to Hawaii before and didn't want to sound too naïve.

Once they were all ready, Piper joined them while stuffing a roll of hundreds into her own backpack. They all gawked at her, and she replied, "Well, you never know what you're gonna need some extra cash."

"That is true," came a voice from behind them. Jason already had his sword drawn, because he knew the voice.

Triton was standing there, studying his nails. "Drop the sword," he said casually. He wasn't mad at all. He looked bored again. "I'm just here to keep my promise," he assured them. His black hair was messed up and he was soaked in water.

"And why would we believe you?" Jason shot at him, already advancing.

"Well, first of all, if you want to get somewhere other than here, you will have to jump into a volcano. I wasn't lying about that one, but no doubt you still won't believe me. I guess my anger gets the best of me sometimes, like young Nico here. Second, even though Kauai is volcanic, it doesn't mean there are any volcanoes. You'll have to go to Kilauea, which is on the Big Island. That is quite a ways away from here."

"Great, so we're screwed," Jason concluded, and clapped his hands together. "Thanks for telling us."

"You're welcome. I'm a man of my word. You beat me, so I will help you like I said. That doesn't mean I'm joining your side, but… maybe I pity you guys a little. You're all so confused. I can't take you across the country, but perhaps I can take you guys across the state."

"What do you mean by that?" Frank asked cautiously.

Triton smiled, and he looked so much like Percy that it wasn't even cool. He snapped his fingers, and the world turned upside down for Jason and totally black. He got a strange sense of déjà vu from months ago when Hera had done the exact same thing to them.

When he could see straight again, they were standing in the middle of what looked like a jungle. Everyone was groaning and Triton was gone yet again. "Gods, I hate it when they do that," moaned Leo.

Something caught his attention, and he smiled. There were six ATV's lined up through the thick trees. Maybe Triton had come through after all. Jason felt a little bad for doubting him, and he didn't know why, since he had tried to kill him. So Piper was right about them jumping into a volcano. He was still skeptical about it.

"Hey!" Leo was sitting on his ATV. "This is awesome. Who cares if he tried to kill us? He got us ATV's."

"Is this even legal?" asked Piper. She was pushing aside a clump of ferns. There was some type of large insect on her arm, and she flicked it off.

"Does it matter?" After the vertigo was gone and they were all ready, they zoomed across the ground and ducked under the vines. Jason could see Mouth Kilauea over them. It was huge, and plus, it was active. Jason knew that much from watching the glowing lava drips down the side of it. Everything screamed danger and do not jump into it. They really were insane for doing this.

A branch hit him in the face and he yelped, sort of like a girl. He felt something moving across his face and his picked it off and studied it in his hand. It took him a minute to see it and he then threw it across the forest and shivered.

He hated spiders almost as much as Annabeth did, but he would never ever tell someone about it.

"Are you okay?" yelled Piper. A flock of birds flew through the trees around their heads, so fast that he couldn't even tell what type of bird they were.

Not really. "Yeah, I good." She nodded and zoomed away, getting some air when she went over a giant tree trunk. Something told Jason that she had probably done this before, because she steered as if she had done it her entire life. She probably had one of them in her garage in Kauai.

When the forest finally changed into rocky ground, they got off and started to walk. "It's a shield volcano," Piper told them. "We just better hope it doesn't erupt while we're up there." She pointed to the top of it. It was a long way. "And if it does… well, Jason, you'll have to fly us all out of there, I guess."

Jason couldn't do that, and they all knew that. He took a deep breath and began to hike with them.

There was so much ash everywhere that soon it began to coat his body and he found it kind of hard to breathe. He could almost feel the heat from the inside of the volcano.

"You know, Percy once fell into a volcano," Nico said suddenly as they were halfway up, sometime later. It was progressively getting steeper. "It was a few years ago, when he was fourteen. I was holding a grudge against him at the time."

"What happened?" asked Hazel.

"He almost died and killed a lot of people. Everyone thought he had died and when he returned, they were having his funeral. But, he's okay now, if that's what you mean. It's kind of hard to burn a son of Poseidon."

They continued hiking, and then they reached the top, Jason felt like his face was going to melt off. Around them, little bits of lava were dripping down the sides of it, and magma bubbled inside on it. He gulped. "Okay, I have no desire to jump in there."

"What if Triton was lying to us?" said Frank. He looked like he was going to die on the spot. He was fumbling nervously with his pockets, like he was checking to make sure something was there. Hazel walked over to him and hugged him. She whispered something in his ear, and he calmed down a little bit. Jason wondered what they were talking about, but he decided it wasn't the time to ask.

"That's why we are sending Leo down there first," Hazel said matter-of-factly. Jason wasn't sure if Leo's fire powers exactly spread to situations like this, but Leo didn't look scared. He was obviously ready to go.

Jason flew up a little and hovered over the center of the volcano. There were no doors down there. Some of the magma, like, exploded and flew into the air. It almost hit him. He landed back next to them. "I still don't like this."

"Well, wish me luck anyway." Leo didn't even say goodbye. Jason flew up to watch him go down. Leo back up a little, then took a flying leap into volcano. Jason crossed his fingers and watched his friend descend like it was slow motion.

But then Leo disappeared. He was just gone. He hadn't landed in the lava. He had literally vanished, kind of like Triton had. Jason could only hope that it had worked.

He went back down to his friends. "Leo's gone. He just vanished, so I guess it worked."

"Then let's not keep him waiting." Piper grabbed Jason's hand and pulled him towards the mouth of the volcano.

"Whoa, Piper!"

But she pulled them both over the side, and Jason felt the rushing heat and steam all around him. It was so hot that he couldn't breathe, and Piper's hand was still in his own, and he wondered if this was how it felt when Percy and Annabeth had fallen to Tartarus.

The magma was ever approaching, but then it was gone, and so was he.

For some reason, this chapter reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. You know, with the 'Leap of Faith' and everything… Review challenge: Should Calypso return in the story or not? If so, should she meet the six above ground, or the two in Tartarus?

Reviews and ideas are loved! I made this longer (3000+ words) just for you guys!:)

-BBH