LII

Piper

(A/N: I don't really like Jason and Piper. So I didn't really try to make his death too dramatic. Read. Review. Enjoy.)

Piper was looking out onto the ocean, thinking about the prophecy. An oath to keep with a final breath. Jason's oath was so binding that Piper was nearly a hundred percent positive that this mission was not going to end well.

"Piper!" Jason yelled. In the space of an hour, his face had turned hard and unforgiving. It was almost like he had adapted himself to keep himself sane. But when he saw her, his face loosened up. "We're nearly at Gozo. You should probably see this."

Piper walked to the front of the ship, where Alabaster was concentrating, hands outstretched, face beaded with sweat. "What's he doing?" Piper whispered.

"Trying to see if he can move the fishbowl." Jason replied. "Just in case there's any problems, he's decided to put the opening on the very top. The fishbowl shouldn't rotate while we're in it, so we should be good.

The ground began to shake. Meter-high waves crashed onto the shore. Slowly, Piper could see a thin, mostly transparent sphere come out of the ocean, slowly rotating. Then, she saw the giant clear hole come out of the sea.

It was pretty obvious, seeing as the hole was completely clear, where Calypso's Island was. It was a giant island in the middle of a tiny ocean, covered in flowers and trees. The sea sparkled in the sun. If Piper hadn't known that there was a magical barrier, she probably wouldn't have seen it.

Alabaster promptly fainted.

"Jason!" Piper yelled. She only had a slight idea of how to control the ship- Jason knew the most about that. He ran to the helm and steered the ship towards the clearer part of the barrier. Luckily, they seemed to have picked the right path, because the ship sailed straight through.

As the ship approached the island, Piper heard a voice yell, "Leo?" Jason winced. "That'll be Calypso. Be careful with her- I don't want her getting too upset."

He gently landed the ship on the sand. A pretty girl, who looked 15 or so, ran towards the ship. She was wearing a sleeveless Greek dress, her hair adorned with flowers.

Jason walked down the gangplank. "I'm sorry, Calypso. But Leo isn't here. He had to go save the world." Calypso looked sad for a moment, but brightened up immediately. "Well, he's saving the world, so that's a good thing, right?"

Jason nodded. "Calypso, I'm sorry to break it to you." he said. "I wish it could be different, but we have to get you off this island and destroy it."

Calypso's expression turned downcast. "Why?"

Piper gave as quick an explanation as she could. Luckily, Calypso seemed to understand. She nodded. "Hold on. I need to grab a few things."

"Hurry up!" Piper yelled at her.

Calypso came rushing out of her cave a few minutes later, grabbing a sack of stuff that she had probably had made. She was also wearing a pair of jeans and a regular t-shirt. How she had managed to do that in such a short amount of time, Piper didn't care. Anyways, she ran towards the ship. Piper could see in her eyes that she was trying very hard to keep composed. She was on the verge of crying, but she was keeping herself together for the time being.

As she walked onto the ship, Jason lowered the gangplank.

"All right." he said. The ship rose up. Jason manned the ballistae and catapults, ready to attack. They were mostly stocked with explosives. "Look away." Piper advised Calypso. She crouched down, shaking, whispering things that were unintelligible to Piper's ears.

Jason flicked a switch.

Suddenly, the largest series of explosions that Piper had ever seen rocked the ship. In less than a fraction of a second, the island had gone from being an island to just... gone.

Jason sighed and held the steering wheel in both hands, ready to drive away.

Suddenly, Piper saw movement in the crater. "Jason, go faster!" she yelled. "There are monsters down there!" he stiffened. Immediately, the ship sped up so quickly that Piper fell down to the deck. But it wasn't enough. The flock of Harpies, Stymphalian Birds and the like swarmed the ship. Piper took out Katopris, while Jason pulled out his gladius. Alabaster, who had fully woken up from his deep slumber by now, muttered a few charms and the runes on his trousers glowed green.

The birds attacked.

"Incantare: Ignavi!" Alabaster yelled. Incantation: Weak sprit. Jason's mind automatically translated the latin for him. Suddenly, the entire flock fell out of the sky. Alabaster promptly fell back down, out of power.

There were too many of them. Jason summoned lightning to shock some of them, but they just avoided it. They were getting overrun- Jason was having trouble getting to the steering wheel. But he spotted Piper.

"Piper!" he yelled. "Get to the steering wheel! Get us out of here!"

Piper felt rooted to the spot. She didn't know how to drive a ship! But she knew that there was no choice. She ran to the controls and realized that they had been drastically simplified. She pressed the up button, and the ship zoomed up. For a while, she thought that they were going to make it out of there all alive and well.

Obviously, she couldn't have been more wrong. Because there was no way that they could out-speed the monsters. Suddenly, Jason turned to her. His face was grim.

"If we can't kill these things, they are going to kill us!" he jumped overboard.

"NO!" Piper yelled. It was right now. She was sure of it. Jason stayed stationary, letting the monsters surround him. Then, Piper saw him release the most powerful bolt of electricity that he had ever generated in his lifetime. It went from monster to monster, jumping gaps and killing them all. Piper wanted to help. But by then, they had reached the edge of the barrier. Alabaster woke up once again and wrestled the controls from her, grimly driving it away from the fishbowl as the entire thing exploded. With Jason still inside.

Piper fell to the ground. Jason. Why?... Why did it have to be him?

An oath to keep with a final breath. Jason had indeed kept his oath. To his final breath.

Suddenly, Piper felt a breeze. A shiver ran down her spine. But before she could turn around, something hit her head and she blacked out.