Reposting this chapter because apparently it glitched out or something, I don't know. Chapter 9 is underway.
PIPER
Piper felt a little bit ashamed when she compared her troubles in Pylos to those of Frank.
While his familiar conflict was meeting lost relatives, who Piper honestly expected not to give a very warm welcome, her conflict was seeing what appeared to be infinite ads of her dad's last movie. She remembered the poster for the movie, his father's shirt ripped open to reveal perfect abs (kind of gross), an AK-47 in each hand, a rakish smile on his chiselled face.
Halfway across the world, in the smallest, most out-of-the-way town imaginable, there was her dad. It had made Piper feel sad, disoriented, homesick and annoyed all at once. Life went on. So did Hollywood. While her dad pretended to save the world, Piper and her friends actually had to. In eight more days, unless Piper could pull off the plan Aphrodite had explained... well, there wouldn't be any more movies, or theatres, or people.
And that made her think, what next?If they didn't all... die, she planned for her and Jason to go life in Camp Half-Blood in the summer, since Frank was now praetor. And for the rest of the year... maybe going back to California, since her dad was always there and it would be easy for Jason to get to Camp Jupiter if necessary.
But there was something else disturbing her...
She did not have that much time to think, since at that moment Jason entered her cabin and started to close the door.
"Don't!" Piper said, a bit too loudly, and Jason arched his eyebrows.
"It's because if Buford see us alone here... Well, you don't want to get yelled at by a table, right?"
Jason seemed to undestand and kept the door open. He sat at the foot of her bunk. "I was about to go on duty. Just wanted to check on you first."
Piper smiled. "Do we even need guard duty with those two aboard?" he shrugged. "Anyway, thank you, how are you doing?"
"I'm doing alright..." His face was so tanned from their time on the coast of Africa that the scar on his lip looked like a chalk mark. His blue eyes were even more startling. His hair had grown out corn-silk white, though he still had a groove along his scalp where he'd been grazed by a bullet from the bandit Sciron's flintlock. And yet...
"However, I think..." Jason continued. "we need to have a talk."
Piper blinked. She felt her heart twisting. "About what?"
He had a sad look in his eyes.
"Us. About us."
"I think you're right." Piper said with a sob. She didn't want to demonstrate weaknesses but recently it was like a snowball in her head, just accumulating doubts.
"However, before that... I want to thank you, I didn't do it before. When my mom... what was left of her... confronted me, a part of me wanted to embrace her. Not because of having a slice of the world along those terrible spirits, but to have her again. But when I looked at you, I got more connected to the world." Jason told her.
"I think Nyx had a bigger role in that." Piper said with a sad smile.
"She helped, but even with her there, I would not have been able to resist the urge without you."
Piper's heart untwisted a bit. She felt her own pulse in her fingers. "Jason... you're a fighter. You'd never give up. When you faced your mother's spirit - that was you being strong. Not me."
"Maybe." His voice was dry. "I didn't mean to lay something so heavy on you, Pipes. It's just... I have my mom's DNA. The human part of me is all her. What if I make the wrong choices? What if I make a mistake I can't take back when we're fighting Gaea? I don't want to end up like my mom – reduced to a mania, chewing on my regrets forever."
Piper cupped her hands around his. She felt like she was back on the deck of the Argo II, holding the Boreads' ice grenade just before it detonated. "You'll make the right choices." she said. "I don't know what will happen to any of us, but you could never end up like your mom."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I just know. You are the best of us, Jason. You would never end up like her."
They held hands in silence. For a moment, Piper could almost imagine they were normal teenagers, enjoying each other's company and learning to be together as a couple. Sure, Jason and she had had a few months at Camp Half-Blood, but the war with Gaea had always been looming. Piper wondered what it would be like if they didn't have to worry about dying a dozen times every day. But she also wondered if they were really meant to be.
Piper studied the tattoo on his forearm - SPQR, the eagle of Jupiter, twelve lines for his years in the legion. "The real reason you came here. I don't demand gratitude, you know, and I know that you had the same thoughts that I had recently."
His eyes met her's again. His electric blue eyes always made Piper feel like she was being electrocuted when she looked at them. However it was almost like they were turned off now.
"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm liking someone el..."
"I know." Piper interrupted. "I know that's not the issue."
"I'm glad that you get it. It's just... I don't like to say it, but... our relationship is build up on a lie."
Piper felt her eyes tearing up, but she knew that this was the truth, and there was no running away from it.
"Since day one when I woke up in the bus, I... everything that you knew about me was a lie. I thought we could just move on with that in our minds, but now that the end is approaching either way..."
"I know. Hera made up everything about us, and... I basically stumbled into your life and I... I could see in Reyna's eyes that before you went missing, you and her were very close. I didn't wish to be an obstacle."
His eyes widened. "Pipes, you were never an obstacle, or an issue, or anything negative. These moments with you, even with the war, made me feel very happy."
"You're saying that..."
"No!" he exclaimed. "Please, I'm not breaking up." Piper's heart untwisted a little bit more. "It's just 'cause... I don't know!" he yelled, with anger. "Juno has put us in such a situation that I don't really know that I want. Piper, I like you, a lot, but..."
"I know how you feel, you don't need to search too hard for words to describe. After... after the 1st of August... we will have a better talk than this, alright? Just know that... I really like you, Jason. I can't just stop liking you, and I know you feel the same for me. We'll see where these feelings and thoughts will guide us, until then, I think we can still have our moments together." She was about to kiss him when there was a knock on the door.
Leo leaned inside. "A party? Am I invited?"
Jason cleared his throat. "Hey, Leo. What's going on?"
"Oh, not much." He pointed upstairs. "Some venti watching us from afar, too scared to attack because of Sunshine up there. You ready for guard duty?"
"Yeah." Jason leaned forward and kissed Piper. When his lips touched Piper's, her heart completely untwisted, and she did not want to let him go. Maybe there was hope for them.
But unfortunately, the kiss soon came to a close. Jason smiled and left the cabin with Leo. She felt the electricity running through her again when she last looked at his eyes before Jason went away.
After the boys left, Piper lay on her pegasus-down pillows and watched the constellations her lamp projected on the ceiling. She didn't think she could sleep, but a full day of fighting monsters in the summer heat had taken its toll. At last she closed her eyes and drifted into a nightmare.
The Acropolis.
Piper had never been there, but she recognized it from pictures – an ancient stronghold perched on a hill almost as impressive as Gibraltar. Rising four hundred feet over the night-time sprawl of modern Athens, the sheer cliffs were topped with a crown of limestone walls. On the clifftop, a collection of ruined temples and modern cranes gleamed silver in the moonlight.
In her dream, Piper flew above the Parthenon - the ancient temple of Athena, the left side of its hollow shell encased in metal scaffolding.
The Acropolis seemed devoid of mortals, perhaps because of the financial problems in Greece. Or perhaps Gaea's forces had arranged some pretext to keep the tourists and construction workers away.
Piper's view zoomed to the centre of the temple. So many giants had gathered there it looked like a cocktail party for redwood trees. A few Piper recognized: those horrible twins from Rome, Otis and Ephialtes, dressed in matching construction worker outfits; Polybotes, looking just as Percy had described him, with poison dripping from his dreadlocks and a breastplate sculpted to resemble hungry mouths; worst of all, Enceladus, the giant who had kidnapped Piper's dad. His armour was etched with flame designs, his hair braided with bones. His flagpole-sized spear burned with purple fire.
Piper had heard that each giant was born to oppose a particular god, but there were way more than twelve giants gathered in the Parthenon. She counted at least twenty and, if that wasn't intimidating enough, around the giants' feet milled a horde of smaller monsters – Cyclopes, ogres, six-armed Earthborn and serpent-legged dracaenae.
In the centre of the crowd stood an empty, makeshift throne of twisted scaffolding and stone blocks apparently yanked at random from the ruins.
As Piper watched, a new giant lumbered up the steps at the far end of the Acropolis. He wore a massive velour tracksuit with gold chains around his neck and greased-back hair, so he looked like a thirty-foot-tall mobster – if mobsters had dragon feet and burnt-orange skin. The mafia giant ran towards the Parthenon and stumbled inside, flattening several Earthborn under his feet. He stopped, gasping for breath at the foot of the throne.
"Where is Porphyrion?" he demanded. "I have news!"
Piper's old enemy Enceladus stepped forward. "Tardy as usual, Hippolytos. I hope your news is worth the wait. King Porphyrion should be..."
The ground between them split. An even larger giant leaped from the earth like a breaching whale.
"King Porphyrion is here." announced the king.
He looked just as Piper remembered from the Wolf House in Sonoma. Forty feet tall, he towered over his brethren. In fact, Piper realized queasily, he was the same size as the Athena Parthenos that had once dominated the temple. In his seaweed-coloured braids, captured demigod weapons glittered. His face was cruel and pale green, his eyes as white as the Mist. His body radiated its own sort of gravity, causing the other monsters to lean towards him. Soil and pebbles skittered across the ground, pulled towards his massive dragon feet.
The mobster giant Hippolytos kneeled. "My king, I bring word of the enemy!"
Porphyrion took his throne. "Speak."
"The demigod ship sails around the Peloponnese. Already they have destroyed the ghosts at Ithaca and managed to get Nike out of her conflict in Olympia!" The crowd of monsters stirred uneasily. A Cyclops chewed his fingernails. Two dracaenae exchanged coins like they were taking bets for the End-of-the-World office sweepstake.
Porphyrion just laughed. "Hippolytos, do you wish to kill your enemy Hermes and become the messenger of the giants?"
"Yes, my king!"
"Then you will have to bring fresher news. I know all this already. None of it matters! The demigods have taken the route we expected them to take. They would have been fools to go any other way."
"But, sire, they will arrive at Sparta by morning! If they manage to unleash the makhai -"
"Idiot!" Porphyrion's voice shook the ruins. "Our brother Mimas awaits them at Sparta. You need not worry. The demigods cannot change their fate. One way or another, their blood shall be spilled upon these stones and wake the Earth Mother!"
The crowd roared approval and brandished their weapons.
"There is more than just that. Recent reports from monsters indicate that the demigods have not achieved all of that alone."
"What do you mean? No gods could help them. Even if they were cured from the conflict, which they are not, they have those... ancient laws not to interfere in mortal quests." Porphyrion replied with disgust.
"That's the thing, sire, those who are helping them... Day and Night have united against the Earth Mother."
Porphyrion's smile and boastful attitude evaporated. If the crowd was cheering loudly before, now Piper could hear a drop of water falling to the ground.
The Giant King waved his hand, dismissing Hippolytos, who bowed and left. Another giant took his place.
With a start, Piper realized this one was female. Not that it was easy to tell. The giantess had the same dragon-like legs and the same long braided hair. She was just as tall and burly as the males, but her breastplate was definitely fashioned for a woman. Her voice was higher and reedier.
"Father!" she cried. "I ask again: Why here, in this place? Why not on the slopes of Mount Olympus itself? Surely -"
"Periboia," the king growled. "the matter is settled. The original Mount Olympus is now a barren peak. It offers us no glory. Here, in the centre of the Greek world, the roots of the gods truly run deep. There may be older temples, but this Parthenon holds their memory best. In the minds of mortals, it is the most powerful symbol of the Olympians. When the blood of the last heroes is spilled here, the Acropolis shall be razed. This hill shall crumble, and the entire city shall be consumed by the Earth Mother. We will be the masters of Creation!"
The crowd hollered and howled, however the tension in the air was still palpable. The giantess Periboia didn't look convinced. "You tempt fate, Father." she said. "The demigods have friends here as well as enemies. With these startling news, it's safe to say that the sudden change of plans was perhaps not the wisest –'
"WISEST?" Porphyrion rose from his throne. All the giants took a step back. "Enceladus, my counsellor, explain to my daughter what wisdom is!"
The fiery giant came forward. His eyes glowed like diamonds. Piper loathed his face. She'd seen it too many times in her dreams when her father was held captive.
"You need not worry, princess." Enceladus said. "We have taken Delphi. Apollo was driven out of Olympus in shame. The future is closed to the gods. They stumble forward blindly. As for tempting fate..." He gestured to his left, and a smaller giant shuffled forward. He had ratty grey hair, a wrinkled face and eyes that were milky with cataracts. Instead of armour, he wore a tattered sackcloth tunic. His dragon-scale legs were as white as frost.
He didn't look like much, but Piper noticed that the other monsters kept their distance. Even Porphyrion leaned away from the old giant.
"This is Thoon." Enceladus said. "Just as many of us were born to kill certain gods, Thoon was born to kill the Three Fates. He will strangle the old ladies with his bare hands. He will shred their yarn and destroy their loom. He will destroy Fate itself!"
Thoon. She remembered what Nyx's said in the first night that she met the demigods. My daughters are not a concern. If Thoon has been summoned by Gaea, they are on our side.
King Porphyrion rose from his throneand spread his arms in triumph. "No more prophecies, my friends! No more futures foretold! The time of Gaea shall be our era, and we will make our own destiny!" The crowd cheered so loudly that Piper felt as if she were crumbling to pieces. Then she realized someone was shaking her awake.
"Hey." Annabeth said. "We made it to Sparta. Can you get ready?"
Piper sat up groggily, her heart still pounding.
"Yeah..." She gripped Annabeth's arm. "But first there's something you need to hear."