Leo

So, this crazy snow goddess, Khione. I remember her. She was there the night my mother died. She is the reason my mother is dead.

One night when I had been at my mother's workshop, we'd just walked into the break room when my mom had realized she didn't have her keys.

"That's funny," she had frowned. "I know I had them. Wait here, mijo. I'll only be a minute."

She had given me one more smile and she had gone back into the warehouse.

She'd only been gone a few seconds when the door had slammed shut. Then the had door locked itself.

"Mom?" I had yelled. I had banged and struggled with the door, but it wouldn't give way. It just wouldn't open.

"She can't hear you," a tinkling voice had said.

I had turned and found himself facing a beautiful woman. She had worn a snowy white dress. She had a silver crown on her straight black hair and icy, unfeeling eyes.

"Wh-who are you?" I had asked.

She had laughed again. "I am Khione."

"What—what do you want? Where's my mom?"

"Ah, how sweet. But you see, I have specific orders and as I understand, you will one day become a problem to my mistress."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"When my mistress wakes, you are destined to fight her. I do not like that."

"I don't know who you are. I don't want to fight anybody."

"A wise choice," Khione had whispered.

"I cannot kill you yet," Khione had said. "The Fates will not allow it. But they not do protect your mother, and they cannot stop me from breaking your spirit."

"Leave my mother alone!" I had shouted fearfully.

"You cannot stop me." Khione had whispered.

My hands had caught fire.

A strange smile had spread across Khione's face, as if she'd already won. I don't remember what had happened after that. My vision had turned red. Flames had washed over the walls, the locked doors. Khione had disappeared. And I had lost consciousness.

I scowl at Khione. "You."

Khione smiles in delight. "Yes, Leo. Me"

"Leo?" Piper says, gripping her dagger tightly. "You know this witch?"

"Yes, I know her!" The words tear themselves out of my mouth. "She's the reason my mother died!"

Jason shoots me a look like, You need to explain yourself after this.

The monsters are now massing behind Khione. They look closer to two hundred now that they are all gathered together. Great counting, Jason.

"Khione's mine," I order. "You guys take the monsters."

Khione laughs and gestures me forward. "Come forward and fight me then, Leo Valdez."

"Oh," I mutter darkly. "You want some Valdez, lady. You're gonna get it."

Piper

Leo charges at Khione, wielding his dagger in his right hand and a hammer in the other. Avenging his mother. How dare Khione kill Leo's mother! No one messes with my friends. And I swear, if Leo doesn't kill Khione himself, I will, very painfully.

The monsters make a gap around Leo and Khione and charge us. I pale slightly at the amount of oncoming monsters but before they can reach us, the front lines are cut down by silver arrows. I look over to see Calypso, Thalia, Phoebe and Lit steadily approaching from a doorway to our left.

I grin and meet the monsters' slightly slowed charge. I slit the throat of an dracaena and kick a lunging hellhound out of the air where it is pounced on by Dix. Vena meets a cyclops' clumsy attack and quickly moves on to a small group of empousa.

Jason's sword stabs through the chest of an earthborn while I kill a cyclops sneaking up on Jason.

"The bet still on?" Jason yells as he ducks a dracaena's trident.

I twirl, kissing him on the cheek as I go before I land my dagger in a cyclops' chest. "Of course. Ten drachma."

I dodge a cyclops' club, kicking it back and slicing off a hellhound's snout in the same movement. "Besides, you heard Leo. I'm in the clear."

"Yeah, well, we both know Leo can't do math anyway."

Leo

So charging a goddess is probably not the smartest decision I've made. But I have a vendetta against Khione. She is the reason I've floated from foster home to foster home. She is the reason I'm an orphan. She is the reason my relatives hate me.

I hate her.

She is the reason everything in my life has gone wrong.

That is what fuels me as I attack Khione. Adrenaline and anger. If I stop to think about what I'm doing, it's crazy. But it's for my mother.

I swing the hammer at Khione's head and she dodges just for me to swipe at her shoulder with my dagger. Khione barely avoids the strike and my dagger catches some of her hair, cutting it off cleanly.

Khione fights one-handed with a knife made out of ice. I swing at her chest with my dagger and she deflects it with her knife. I stumble back and she sends a burst of wintery air at me. Instinctively, I hold up my hands and a wall of fire roars to life, burning through her attack.

Khione stumbles back, surprised by my fire and I grin. The wall of fire disappears but I engulf my body in flames, my dagger and hammer also being consumed.

Khione narrows her eyes at me and summons another ice knife into her hand. She throws it at me but the knife simply melts the second it gets close to me.

"Sweet," I mutter to myself.

Khione becomes enraged and throws an onslaught of ice daggers at me, backtracking slowly. I burn through all of it.

When Khione reaches the back wall she stops throwing daggers at me. She holds onto her knife and charges, trying to regain some ground. She slashes at my face, which I dodge and kick her in the chest.

Khione stumbles back but when I step forward to attack while she is disoriented, she slashes at my chest. I curse and jump back, glancing quickly at the already steadily bleeding diagonal gash. My Camp Half-Blood t-shirt is now stained with my blood and nearly cut in half.

"Hey, lady! You ruined my top!" I yell at Khione.

Khione scowls at me and stabs at my shoulder.

"Now that's not a very good apology, is it?" I say, dancing away from the strike.

Khione lets out a scream of frustration. I step out of her downward strike and hit her wrist with my dagger hilt. Her knife goes flying out of her hand and I lunge forward, swinging at her throat. Khione sidesteps, swiping me on the left arm as I go past her, with a newly conquered up knife.

I grab my left arm with my right in pain. Khione slashes at my throat, attempting to behead me. I duck and sweep out her legs from beneath her. Khione crumples to the ground and I waste no time in stabbing her in the heart.

Khione's dead body disappears, leaving behind a pile of snow. I rush back to Hera, ignoring all the amazed looks I'm getting from my friends.

"Um, Hera. Are you getting shorter, or is it just me?" I ask nervously.

"No, you idiot! The earth is consuming me!" Hera points at a growing figure made of mud. "Gaia is using me to raise Porphyrion, King of the Giants."

"So you're like a heat-lamp, or a battery?" I guess.

"Joke all you want, Valdez. But if I am consumed, the rein of the gods is doomed," Hera warns.

"Oh, right," I mutter.

"Calypso!" I shout. "Get over here!'

Calypso jogs over, neatly ducking under a hellhound and letting it slam into a dracaena.

"What?" Calypso asks, drawing her bow and starting to shoot any monsters sneaking up on Jason, Piper and Lit.

"I'm gonna try cutting through the cage's bars. Can you work some voodoo magic and make sure once I cut through a one, it doesn't repair itself?"

"Yeah," Calypso nods. She points to the largest tendril, "Try cutting through that one. The magic is starting from that point."

"Right," I nod. "Hold on, Tia."

Calypso

The second Leo starts sawing at the earthen tendril, I wedge a shielding charm after the saw, so the bar doesn't repair itself the minute the metal has passed through.

"Leo? A time estimate?" I ask, already feeling the pull of using magic.

"Five minutes," Leo replies absentmindedly.

"Thalia, Phoebe!" I shout, gesturing them over. "Jason, Piper, Lit! Make sure no monsters can get to us. This should only take five minutes, then Hera will be free."

Suddenly the ground shakes and the figure made out of mud reaches a full height of 15 feet. Porphyrion shakes off the dirt and mud and gives a booming laugh. "Finally! Free at last!"

Leo's sawing slows as he takes in Porphyrion. I ignore Porphyrion and refuse to look at him.

"Leo, keep working," I order. "Jason, Thalia. I need you two to distract Porphyrion."

Thalia activates her spear and shield. "You got it, Calypso."

Jason grips his sword tighter. "Let's go entertain a giant," he says agreeably.

Jason

I think being a demigod makes you make idiotic decisions. Like for example, entertaining a giant.

Porphyrion watches us approach eagerly, "Excellent! Which gods are you? Hermes? Aphrodite?"

"Did he just call me Aphrodite?" Thalia mutters. "I'm going to kill him."

"I am Jason Grace, son of Jupiter!" I yell up at the giant. "And this is Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus!"

Porphyrion throws back his head and laughs, "So Zeus sacrifices two of his children to me. Unluckily for him, it will not save him. He hides up on Olympus and sends two weak demigods instead."

"If you knew who I was, you would be worried about me, not my father!" I yell at the giant.

"Jason, what are you doing?" Thalia murmurs.

"We will start with boasting, will we? Just like the old times. Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tatarus, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera."

"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera said. "He'll do it again!"

"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provided us with many of your enemies. We will destroy you at the roots."

"You wouldn't dare," Hera said, but she was weakening. I could hear it in her voice. Calypso kept her concentration and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, covering her up to her waist.

"Oh, yes," the giant said. "The Titans attacked your home in New York. Bold, but unsuccessful. We are the elder children of Gaia, we are wiser. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned."

Porphyrion frowns at Leo and Calypso, just noticing them.

"How did a demigod defeat you if they're so puny?!" Thalia yells.

"Ha! You can't honestly expect me to tell you that! I was created to replace Zeus, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, demigod, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of crushing two little demigods!"

"So, I have finished my boasting. What have you to boast about, little demigods?" Porphyrion finishes.

"I am the son of Jupiter!" I shout. "I am a child of Rome and the praetor of the First Legion! I slew the Trojan sea monster! I toppled Kronos' throne and killed Krios with my own hands! And now, I'm going to add you to that list!"

I fly at the giant, aiming at his head, Porphyrion swats me out of the air, slamming me into a wall.

"Jason!" I hear Thalia yell.

I sit up just in time to see Thalia dodge Porphyrion's sword and plunge her spear between his legs. He lets out an agonising scream and Thalia withdraws her spear, running back to a safe distance.

Porphyrion limps towards her, "You will pay for that, girl!"

I pick up a trident from a fallen monster and throw it at Porphyrion's back. It only has enough force to go in a few inches but it distracts Porphyrion for long enough for Thalia to run over to me.

We stand, side by side, facing the Giant King. "Jason," Thalia mutters. "Help me with this."

I know what she's doing, I can somehow sense it. So when Thalia raises her hand, I do too, channeling the previously silent sky into a storm. A huge lightning bolt crashes through the roof and into Porphyrion.

While he is blinded, I run at him. But before I can get close enough, Porphyrion regains his senses and notices me coming. His sword comes from above me and I dive between his legs as the sword crashes into the spot I had previously occupied. I roll and come up standing as Porphyrion turns to me.

I catch Thalia's eye. Distract him, I mouth.

Thalia draws her bow and starts firing arrows at remarkable speeds, catching Porphyrion's attention. While he is distracted, I sneak up behind Porphyrion and stab him through the back, my sword going through to the hilt.

Porphyrion yells in pain and spins around, my blade still in his back. Before I can move, Porphyrion thrusts his sword through my left shoulder, I yell and immediately crumple when he withdraws his sword. Porphyrion picks me up and tosses me into a wall, my injured shoulder taking the impact. I vaguely hear Thalia scream in despair.

It's all I can do to lift my head to see what's going on. Leo finally saws through the earthen tendril and a crack loud enough for me to hear, resounds around the room.

Hera's prison crumbles into dirt and Hera stands up, throwing off her cloak to reveal a blindingly white gown. She shouts something and everyone looks away. Piper locks eyes with me and her own eyes widen in alarm. She opens her mouth and shouts something that I can't hear and I look at her in painful confusion. A flash behind Piper catches my eye and I look at Hera just as she explodes in a burst of light.

My head falls to the ground and all the monsters disintegrate. I try to close my eyes but it's too late, the light sears itself into my head and it feels like my body is on fire. Everything goes black.

My last thought is, I guess this means I owe Piper ten drachma.

-SAW