Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Part VIII

Piper stood at the railing, Percy—of all people—at her side. It was strange to see him away from Annabeth, but the daughter of Athena was working with Jason and Frank belowdecks at the moment. They were trying to harness the Athena Parthenos to a pulley system so that they could lower her to the ground once they got to Athens. Jason and Frank were flying around and over the statue, pulling ropes taut and buckling it securely in a harness. Annabeth was supervising. Nico was resting—he'd taken the night shift yesterday, and the hour of sleep he'd snuck in afterwards had obviously not been enough, so Hazel had ordered him to sleep—and the daughter of Pluto herself was feeling too airsick to leave her cabin. Coach was in his room, doing something or other. That left Piper and Percy on watch.

She tried not to stare at the older demigod, but it was hard. He'd come back from Tartarus . . . changed. Piper wasn't even talking about the occasional hallucinations; those never lasted long, as long as Annabeth was nearby, and anyway they were pretty rare. Honestly, after the things those two must have been through down there, Piper was surprised his visions weren't worse.

No, what worried Piper was the change in his personality. His eyes were duller now, and sadder, with a hidden pain that he never would have felt a few weeks ago. He didn't joke as much as he used to. His smiles were less frequent. Whatever Styx Percy and Annabeth had been through in the pits of the earth, it was weighing the son of Poseidon down. And Piper guessed that Annabeth's nightmares weren't helping either.

She had the cabin right next to Annabeth's, and she wasn't an idiot. She heard the tearful screams and banging noises from next door that came nearly every night, and she heard the quiet thuds of footsteps that pattered down the hall outside her door and rushed into Annabeth's room soon after the noises started. There would be quiet murmuring, a lengthy silence, and then the footsteps would leave again. How Percy always seemed to know when Annabeth was having a nightmare, Piper had no idea. She had thought about offering to let Percy trade rooms with her—it would be easy to clear out the few belongings she had brought on the trip, and then he would be closer to Annabeth—but eventually she decided against it. She had a feeling that Annabeth would be incredibly embarrassed if she found out that Piper knew she was having nightmares. Worse, she would also probably feel guilty for waking Piper up in the middle of the night, and that was the last thing Piper wanted. It wasn't like it was the daughter of Athena's fault, after all. So she did her best to ignore the nightly interruptions. They were none of her business.

"Are you nervous?" Percy asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

Piper started. "What?"

"Are you nervous about landing in Athens?"

"I . . ." Piper looked up, trying to determine what Percy would say if she told him the truth. To her surprise, he seemed worried himself. She decided that it was okay to admit her own fears. "Yeah," she said, "I am. Athens is . . . well, it's a major city, both now and in the ancient days. It was the center of Western civilization back then, the height of culture, politics, and religion. That city is a big deal. I can't even imagine what sort of monsters we'll face there. And worse . . ."

She hesitated, then forged ahead. "Gaea is supposed to sacrifice two demigods on August 1st, only ten days from now. And she's supposed to sacrifice them in Athens. Percy, what if she decides that Reyna isn't a good enough demigod after all? What if she decides that she needs Annabeth, Hazel, or me instead? What if we're flying straight into a trap?" She shook her head. "And even if she's not planning on sacrificing us, that just means she'll want to kill us. Athens is where Gaea is supposed to rise—where her and her giants are planning on ripping down Mt. Olympus and destroying Western civilization forever. We're not going to be able to just waltz into the Parthenon, drop off the Athena Parthenos, and then leave. One way or another, our quest is going to end there."

Percy closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the night air. He leaned out over the railing, farther than Piper figured was safe. "Percy . . ."

Hearing the concern in her voice, he rocked back on his heels, clutching the railing to keep him steady, and opened his eyes to look at her. Piper must have looked pretty scared because then he smiled at her, one of the huge grins that always reassured her. "Don't worry," he said. "It'll be fine. We've been pulled together as the strongest demigods of the age for a reason. If anyone can defeat Gaea, we can." His eyes hardened suddenly, and he pulled Riptide out of his pocket, staring down at it as he spoke. "And you can bet your cornucopia that we will. I'll kick Gaea's sorry podex to the end of the universe myself if I have to."

Piper looked at her shoes. "I appreciate the thought, Percy," she said softly, "but . . . how can you be so certain? If all of the giants we defeated, plus most of the monsters in Tartarus, escaped before Leo and Nico closed the Doors, that's a lot of enemies to fight. Also, part of me wonders if that storm or fire line from the prophecy was really fulfilled when Leo closed the Doors, or if there will be another incident . . . And there's still that final breath line . . . And why would the Doors of Death line be at the end of the prophecy, if that was the second line that we resolved?"

Percy shook his head. "I don't know, Piper," he said wearily. "Those are questions for Annabeth. I just try not to worry about prophecies, fight as hard as I can, and pray to the gods that it all works out in the end."

Piper nodded, but her thoughts were still whirling. You say you pray to the gods, she wanted to tell him, but the gods are in disarray. They're the ones that need our help. How can they possibly aid us?

Before she could open her mouth to answer, however, something massive crashed into the bottom of the hull. Inside the ship, Piper could feel something huge sliding back and forth, crashing into walls. Percy's eyes widened. "The Parthenos . . ." he said, realization dawning. "If it's rolling around down there . . . Annabeth could be trapped underneath! She could be crushed! Oh gods . . ." He turned to race for the stairs, but Piper grabbed his wrist.

"Percy," she said in a small voice, staring straight ahead as she spoke, "Jason and Frank can take care of Annabeth. They'll fly her out, make sure the Parthenos doesn't crush her. I . . . I'm going to need you on deck with me."

"Wha—?" Percy asked. "Why . . ."

His voice died away as he realized that Piper's eyes were fixated on the sky in front of them. Slowly, he turned around.

"Oh . . ." he said. "Oh, gods . . . I—I'll stay."

"You'd better," Piper said, trying to sound confident and completely failing. "I can't defeat seven dragons all by myself."

She drew her dagger. Percy uncapped Riptide.

The dragons charged.

Immediately, Piper knew how hopeless the situation was. Percy was a fantastic fighter, but he couldn't fly up to meet the dragons. They easily swooped around just out of reach, spewing flames that burned away the canvas sails and singed the masts. Gods, Piper was missing Leo more than ever. It would have been great to have a fire-immune mechanic right now, to douse the fires cropping up all over deck, shoot his amazing new weapons at the dragons, and steer them out of danger. Annabeth would be the next best person to have on deck, but she was still stuck belowdecks somewhere. Piper didn't even know if the daughter of Athena was okay. But gods of Olympus, none of them would be okay if Percy and she couldn't figure out a way to ward off these dragons.

Piper ran across the deck, dodging spurts of flame, and skidded to a halt in front of the nearest ballistae. She quickly loaded it, aimed towards a dragon, and fired.

The missile of Greek fire exploded on impact, sending the beast out of commission. It was immune to the fire itself, but the shockwave of the blast was enough to send the monster spinning out of control.

One down, six to go.

Piper loaded another missile while Percy ran to the prow and pressed the alarm button—as if any of their friends could have missed the smell of burning cloth and the shaking of explosions. She heard feet racing up the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief—maybe it was Annabeth coming to take charge, or Jason, who could fly up to attack more dragons—but before they could burst onto the deck, all Hades broke loose.

One of the dragons swooped down towards the ship—too close for Piper to hit it, for fear that the Greek fire would damage the Argo II as well—and breathed fire directly on the mast. Then it veered hard to its left, whacking its thick, solid tail against the already weakened, burning pole. With a sound like the creaking of a massive, rusty drawbridge, the mast crashed to the deck, flattening the door to the stairs—and possibly crushing her friends inside as well. Piper screamed, but she hadn't even seen the worst of it. She whirled around to shoot the ballistae at that horrible dragon, but just as she fired the missile, something crashed into the port side of the hull, and the ship tilted crazily. The missile of Greek fire veered off harmlessly, exploding in the clouds instead of into a dragon . . . and Piper went flying off the deck and into the sky.

At that point, she figured it was over. She'd had a good run with her friends and found a fantastic boyfriend in Jason, but all the people who could possibly help her now were trapped somewhere in the warship. She was going to fall a thousand feet and end her life as a splat on the Ionian Sea.

Piper reached the peak of her flight, hovered for half a moment, and then started falling back towards the water. She had been planning to go out bravely, heroically, but she couldn't help herself. She screamed as she fell.

She found herself close to the height of the Argo II again, watching helplessly as Percy fought two dragons at once, rolling to avoid their blasts of fire, stabbing chinks in their scales whenever he could, and cursing freely the whole time. He heard her screaming and jerked around, his eyes widening and his lips forming the first syllable of her name. Percy was distracted for the merest tenth of a second, but it was the opening one of the dragons needed to swipe its claws down Percy's back. Piper fell past the deck just in time to see the son of Poseidon crash to the ground. She yelled in despair.

Then, just as Piper was falling past the side of the ship, half of the wooden hull burst apart, the sturdy wooden boards splintering into a thousand pieces. A dragon swooped out of the ship and rose into the air, and Piper had to withhold a third shriek. Another dragon? But . . . Her eyes widened. Why had a dragon been inside the ship . . . unless it wasn't really a dragon after all . . .

Suddenly, Piper felt arms wrap around her waist, and her descent slowed, and then stopped altogether. She leaned back, eyes shining with unshed, fearful tears, and found herself staring into Jason's blue eyes. She let out a cry of joy and twisted around, so that she could wrap her arms around her boyfriend's neck. "Jason . . ." she sobbed. "Jason . . ."

"Shhh," Jason calmed her as they rose slowly. "I know, Pipes. I know. Sorry I didn't come sooner."

"No . . ." she gasped between sobs. "You couldn't have . . . I mean, Frank destroyed the hull to get you guys out . . . Leo's poor ship . . ."

Jason shrugged. "The dragons had already made several dents in it," he explained. "We could feel the ship's hull cracking. We figured that if the Argo II was going to be in need of such serious repairs anyway, we might as well use the cracks to our advantage. We knew you two would need help, so Frank turned into a dragon, Annabeth, Hazel, Nico, and Coach Hedge climbed on his back, and he busted a hole through the side. He flew out, and that's when I saw you."

Piper hugged him tighter. "You saved my life," she whispered.

Jason grinned. "Hey, it's no big deal. That's what boyfriends are for."

By the time they reached the deck, most of the battle was over. Their friends had either scared off or killed all of the dragons, but the monsters had left some serious damage. Percy summoned moisture from the clouds to put out countless small fires that burned all over the deck. Frank turned into an elephant and pushed the mast off to the side, where Nico and Hazel tied it to the railing so it wouldn't roll around and crush anybody. Meanwhile, Annabeth did a damage check, using Festus to take stock of the remaining parts of the Argo II. As he scanned, the daughter of Athena grappled with the ship's controls and managed to execute an emergency landing on a massive, uninhabited beach somewhere in Greece. When the ship landed relatively smoothly, Piper breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow, they had all survived the attack.

Of course, her happiness was quenched as soon as Annabeth turned to give a status report to the rest of the crew. Her eyes were so stormy, Piper knew the news was going to be bad.

"The flight stabilizers are in ruins," Annabeth told them, her expression grim. "There are about five small holes in the hull, plus the massive one we had to punch through. Half of the ship's communication network—it runs throughout the ship, so that Festus can keep an eye on the state of the engine and weapons and such—is disconnected. Our main mast, as you can see, has been destroyed. Our main entrance to our cabins is pulverized. This ship has needed serious repairs before, but we've never had it this bad. And now . . ." She looked down. Percy walked over to her and pulled her into a hug, and she leaned into his shoulder. "Without Leo," she whispered, "I don't even know where to start."

Percy rocked her back and forth as Annabeth burst into tears. The rest of the crew kept their distance, so Annabeth could be embarrassed as little as possible. Piper found herself pressed against Jason as well, his arms around her for support. "We'll never make it to Athens in time," she told him. She hadn't meant for her voice to be loud, but the rest of the crew turned towards her anyway. With her friends' eyes on her, all broken and helpless, Piper's strength faltered.

"I mean . . ." she began. "I . . . You know it's true." Furiously, she wiped away the tears that were springing to her eyes. "We can't fly to Athens with our ship in this condition, especially not in half a day. We won't be able to meet the deadline. Camp Jupiter . . ." She looked down, whispering the last words. "Camp Jupiter will attack Camp Half-Blood, and there will be nothing we can do about it."

Look, fast update! Aren't you proud of me? ;)

This is a shorter chapter than I had planned originally, but I want to ask you guys two questions, and chapters that are solely author's notes are just annoying, so...

1. Do you like author's notes better when they're at the beginnings or ends of chapters? Because I saw someone who really hated it when author's notes were at the beginning, and another who hates it when they're at the end, so I was just wondering what the best place for ANs is to you.

2. (This question is more important.) Would you guys be okay with me using some pieces of HoH in this story? I GOT IT ON FRIDAY AND READ IT IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS OH MY GOSH THAT BOOK. But anyway, some demigods, uh, achievedcertain, erm, abilities in HoH, and I'd like to use those abilities in this story (trying not to give away any spoilers...). I wouldn't use all of the details from HoH—especially since some of them would contradict important, established information in this story :P—but I might use the ones that fit in... If you don't want me to because you haven't gotten the book yet or whatever, that's totally fine, just tell me. I think I'm going to set up a poll on my profile (perfect opportunity to figure out how those things work ;), and you can vote there or tell me in a review or PM or whatever. Thanks so much!

^Um, I hope that made sense... If it didn't, just ignore me. :)

Oh, and congratulations to IzzyQuagmire0907, the 100th reviewer!

Thanks for reading!