***Hi all, here's Chapter 32. It's a little lighter than the last one—hope you enjoy! Chapter 33, featuring Annabeth's POV, will be up by Tuesday, June 24. Have a great weekend!***

XXXII. PIPER

Jason was down. Leo was down. Frank was down. Percy and Hazel were surrounded by monsters and the giants were about to drill through the heart of the mountain and destroy the Olympians. Piper wanted to sob. But that wouldn't solve anything.

She struggled to her feet. Miraculously, her torch was still lit and still in her hand; Piper had managed to hang on to it during Gaea's little hissy fit. About twenty feet away, Annabeth was also getting to her feet, her torch blazing in her hand. Piper met her friend's eyes and saw a furious glint in Annabeth's that matched Piper's own feelings. Silently, they agreed: Gaea is going down NOW.

But before they could move, the earth goddess cackled victoriously and the mountain shook again, almost flinging Piper back to the ground. Enceladus and Porphyrion roared in triumph. "Yes!" Gaea shrieked. "We've reached the center of the mountain. Now, we will destroy those wretched gods forever!"

Piper's stomach churned. Before she could think of a way to stop the giants, she heard Annabeth scream, "Percy! The drill!"

Percy looked over. He seemed to understand the situation in an instant. He closed his eyes, then yelled. The hydraulic drill exploded in a shower of water and metal, soaking everyone on the mountaintop. Somehow, Piper and her friends managed to avoid being impaled, but many of the monsters weren't so lucky. Amazingly, the torches were also still lit, which led Piper to believe that this was not normal fire. With a surge of relief, though, she saw that Frank's burning stick had gone out. He was unconscious, but she hoped there was still a little of his lifeline remaining.

There were now only about a dozen monsters left. Even as Piper watched, Arion used his back legs to kick a Cyclops in the chest, blasting the monster to dust, before bringing his front hooves down on a dracaena's head. Hazel swung her sword and annihilated three Earthborn in one stroke. Okay, so now there were closer to half a dozen monsters left.

Plus an irate primordial goddess and her two giant sons.

Porphyrion was blinking, dazed, with a dent in his head from where a girder had hit him. Enceladus had been smacked in the face with several hundred pounds of pressurized water and was still struggling to get back up. But Gaea hadn't been touched. Her expression was murderous as she turned toward Percy. The goddess's back was to Piper and Annabeth, though, and Piper suddenly saw their chance. She glanced at Annabeth, who nodded, eyes narrowed. Silently, they began to creep forward.

"YOU!" Gaea shrieked. "You worthless, no-good son of Poseidon!"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Worthless? No-good? That hurts, Gaea, coming from you. I thought I was your most valuable pawn."

Gaea was fuming, the ground trembling around her. Walking towards her was like trying to walk across one of those air-filled bounce houses. Piper fought to keep her balance, but she was getting closer to Gaea's left side. In her peripheral vision, she saw Annabeth nearing the goddess on the right. For a single instant, Percy's gaze flicked to his girlfriend, then locked back on the earth goddess. Piper realized he was deliberately infuriating Gaea to keep her focus on him, giving Annabeth and Piper time to make their move.

"You are nothing," Gaea spat.

"Oh, really?" Hazel, with Arion's help had finished off the last few monsters. Now, she cantered over to Percy's side and jumped down from the horse. "You might be powerful, Gaea, but you've underestimated us at every turn."

"Kronos made the same mistake," Percy said. His voice had turned steely. "He tried to use demigods as pawns. Luke, Silena, Ethan, me. But he messed up. He didn't realize that, to mortals, some things are more important than power. Love, respect, family. You immortal types never learn."

"I defeated you once," Hazel said quietly. "And you're about to be defeated again." She locked eyes with Piper. "Right NOW."

Piper lunged forward, jabbing her torch at Gaea's waist as Annabeth did the same.

Gaea screamed as her robes caught fire like corn silk in a drought. In seconds, she was a towering inferno. Piper scrambled backward, away from the heat.

The sky darkened. The entire mountain shook like it was trying to throw them off. Piper dug her fingers into the dirt, holding on and praying that this would work.

The flames from the goddess inferno rose sixty feet into the air. The burning smell and the heat made Piper's eyes water. She pressed her face to the ground. She couldn't see or hear anything except the roar of the flames, the rumble of the shaking earth, and Gaea's shrill scream. She hoped her friends were okay.

And then, just as suddenly as it had started, the rumbling stopped. The ground stilled. Gaea gave a final, anguished wail and her body crumbled to ashes. The flames died. Where the goddess had stood there was now nothing but a pile of dirt that was already beginning to blow away.

The mountaintop was silent. The only sound Piper could hear was her own pounding heart.

Gaea was gone.

Before Piper could even begin to comprehend that fact, her attention was drawn to Enceladus, who was roaring in pure rage. The giant was back on his feet, his dreadlocks dripping wet. Piper hoped the water beating he'd taken would prevent him from being able to breathe fire, but there was still smoke curling out of his nostrils. His massive hands balled into fists.

Piper got to her feet. Nearby, Annabeth, Percy, and Hazel were also standing back up. Arion seemed to have run off in the chaos, not that Piper could blame him. In fact, judging by the homicidal rage on Enceladus's face, she thought maybe the horse had been the smartest one on the summit.

"You have won nothing!" the giant bellowed. "War will break out between the demigod camps, blood will drench the soil, and Gaea will rise again. But first, I will destroy you!"

"Funny," Piper said, her hand clenched on her sword hilt, "that was Gaea's plan, too. Didn't work out too well for her, though, did it?"

Enceladus snarled and charged toward her, but Piper was ready for him. As he reached her, she sidestepped and slashed her sword across his shin. The giant howled in pain as golden ichor ran down his leg.

"I will crush you! You cannot defeat me without a god. And you have no gods on your side."

"Is that so?" said a new voice that Piper vaguely recognized.

"Ah, no," she heard Percy groan.

Bacchus had appeared out of nowhere. Piper knew he was in his Roman form, not his Greek form, because he was dressed in the exact same outfit he had worn in the Coliseum in Rome, and he was casually swinging his thyrsus.

Before Enceladus could say anything, Porphyrion's voice boomed out. "We do not fear you, wine god. Your power may have been enough to thwart the twins, but you will never defeat us."

The giant king was back on his feet. Piper's heart thudded when she saw how close he was standing to Jason, who was still unconscious. If Porphyrion lost his balance or took a step back, Jason would be crushed. However, even in her panic, she knew this wasn't the moment for charmspeak. She needed to let Bacchus do—whatever it was Bacchus had come here to do.

Bacchus smiled grimly. "Sadly, that's true. Though I think a good pinecone to the head would give even you, Porphyrion, a nice headache for a few decades. But don't worry—I'm just the warm-up act."

"Warm-up act?" Hazel asked.

"Mmhm." Bacchus glanced at the sky, where dark clouds were still swirling directly over the summit of the mountain. A chill spread down Piper's back. "Mercury, Hermes, whatever, is still struggling with the schizophrenia, what with war about to break out on Long Island and all. So I'm here to deliver a message from Jupiter."

"And what message is that?" Enceladus growled.

Piper's ears popped as the pressure dropped. The hair stood up on her arms. There was a crackle of electricity and the smell of ozone. Thunder boomed as a brilliant flash of lightning exploded on the hillside, right where Enceladus was standing.

When Piper's vision cleared and her ears stopped ringing, she saw a charred pile of ash where Enceladus had been.

"Jupiter says hello," Bacchus told the ash pile, straight-faced.

Piper glanced around. Her friends were staring, open-mouthed, which was pretty much the same way Piper felt.

Porphyrion bared his teeth. Piper noticed he still had a dent in his head from where a piece of the drill had hit him. "I was born to oppose Jupiter. The sky god cannot defeat me."

"True. But that is why he has me," Hera said as she appeared next to Bacchus.

Piper hadn't thought she could be more shocked, but that did it.

"What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked the goddess.

Hera smiled. "Helping you, of course, my dear." She looked at Porphyrion and her smile turned cold. "My husband cannot defeat you, giant. But I can."

Hera clapped her hands. There was another flash of light.

Piper gasped.

Porphyrion was gone. Or, at least, he had been transformed. Standing in the giant king's place was a bright blue peacock the size of a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade balloon.

"Holy Hera," Percy muttered.

"Yes, thank you," Hera said. "And now, Porphyrion, be gone!" The goddess clenched her fists and the peacock exploded into a million blue feathers that rained down on the summit of Mount Olympus.

Piper was normally good with words. But right now, the only thing she managed was, "Um."

"Uh," Annabeth said.

"Huh," Percy remarked.

"Wow," Hazel said, which Piper thought summed things up pretty well.

"Nice one," Bacchus said approvingly.

"I thought so." Hera looked pleased with herself.

Piper finally managed to make her voice work. "So, anyway, our friends are hurt, plus there's a war about to break out at Camp Half-Blood."

Hera nodded. "Yes, there's still a lot of work to do. Luckily, I learned a few first-aid tricks from Apollo."

The goddess snapped her fingers. Jason, Leo, and Frank instantly sat up like they'd been zapped.

Leo's head snapped back and forth. "What the—where'd the giants go?"

Jason rubbed his temples and muttered something about "so tired of being knocked out."

Frank blinked. "This isn't the Underworld."

Hazel made a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob as she tackled her boyfriend in a hug. "No, it definitely is not!"

"You still have a little fuel left to burn, Frank Zhang." Hera smiled. "Use it well."

Jason walked over to Piper and she flung her arms around him. He hugged her back, hard. "I'm glad you're alive," she said with her face pressed against his chest.

"Same here." Jason winced. "I mean, I'm glad you're alive. And I'm alive. We're both alive. Oh, whatever, you know what I mean."

Piper gave a shaky laugh. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Hey, what about me?" Leo asked.

Piper pulled away from Jason to throw her arms around Leo. "I'm glad you're alive, too."

"Yes, yes, this is all very nice," Bacchus interrupted. "But it's not over yet. If blood is spilled at that Greek camp, Gaea will reawaken. And all the trouble I've gone to won't matter."

"All the trouble you've gone to?" Percy said incredulously, his eyes narrowed. Annabeth put a hand on his chest.

"We need to get to Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. "But how will we get back there in time? And what about the Athena Parthenos? Where did it end up?"

"Oh, the statue is with Nico di Angelo. He, Thalia Grace, and some satyr showed up with it on Olympus a few days ago." Hera waved her hand dismissively. "They almost got incinerated for daring to shadow travel into the throne room unannounced, but Artemis demanded a reprieve for her lieutenant, and then we had to hear them out. It was quite the ordeal. Apparently they had some idea that it would heal the gods', ahem, personality problems right away, but with the camps at war, it didn't work. Anyway, I'll take care of everything. The son of Hades will meet you with the statue and I will personally transport you back to Long Island."

Leo groaned. "Lady, the last time you did that, I lost my lunch. And, besides, what about my ship?"

Hera rolled her eyes. "I'll make sure it gets there, too. Now, we're out of time." She looked at Annabeth. "Do you understand what must happen?"

Annabeth nodded. "I do. But what about Reyna?"

"You'll see," Hera said. "You've done well, demigods. Succeed in this final challenge and you will truly be worthy of being called heroes of Olympus."

Before any of them had a chance to reply to that, Hera waved her hand and darkness swallowed Piper and her friends.