Chapter 10
The group trekked through the piles among piles of wasted metal. Odd objects littered the junkyard, from couches to refrigerators to swords and tanks. Each object had a story behind it no doubt— what curse or malfunction that befall it, was something most of the quest group didn't wish to find out.
"Wow there's so much stuff around!" Percy exclaimed as he walked through the junkyard. There were a number of objects that he had never seen before— having been locked in that other space for so long.
"Don't touch anything, Perseus," Zoë warned, acting protective over the guardian.
Percy just grinned and said, "Jeez no need to whip out the full name…"
Kai laughed as he watched the two bicker. His thoughts trailed back to the dream that he'd had on the train. Zoë, Hercules… and that mysterious voice at the end of his dream as he had started to wake up.
That voice was eerily similar to Percy's, Kai noticed as they continued through the junkyard.
"Couldn't be…" Kai thought aloud as he tripped over a metal chair.
Grover snickered at him, as he avoided the chair, walking around the pile of trash.
"Shut up G-man," Kai muttered as he stood up, brushing off his pants.
Bianca was off on her own, looking through the junkyard, as Percy and Zoë walked further ahead, bickering as the two always did.
"There's the end of the junkyard, finally!" Kai heard Percy call from the front of the group. Bianca had finally rejoined the main group, claiming to have gone to look around at the junk.
"About time," Zoë muttered as she looked at the road ahead, "Let's get out of the trashy area."
"Wow, Zoë your sense of humor is really coming along," Percy said grinning at her.
"Shut up."
Percy felt like everything had gone great, except for the fact that Aphrodite and Ares had wanted to have a rather private conversation with Kai. Everything else had gone to plan. Naturally, there were going to be no monsters in the junkyard of the gods, therefore there would be no deaths... Of course, as soon as Percy decided now was the time to become just that much more positive, something bad had to happen. The creaky noise of metal moving on metal sounded through the surrounding landscape.
The ground seemed to shake, as if there was a 6.5 earthquake happening.
"What's going on?" Kai yelled, as he whirled around, only to see a veritable mountain rising up from the pile of metal behind him.
"Who stole something!" Zoë cried, realizing that this must be the defensive mechanism against thieves who stole from the junkyard.
No one said anything for a moment, accusing eyes flashed around, trying to figure out who had taken something.
"I did…" Bianca said as she looked down at the ground, her eyes full of guilt.
"Throw it away, put it back in the junkyard!" Kai shouted as Bianca looked at him, for a moment there was hesitation in her eyes, before she threw the small statue back into the garden.
For a moment, there was a pause as the whole group stared back at the massive metal statue; in hopes that Bianca's actions had changed the metal monstrosities mind about getting out of bed. Unfortunately for them, the metal robot continued to piece itself together.
"Is that… Talos?" Percy said as he stared at the massive, fully formed, metal statue.
"It seems to be a miniature one…" Zoë murmured as she stared at it, "No doubt it has some sort of error to it. The real one is a lot... bigger."
As the mini Talos stomped towards the group, the ground shook violently. Sending the group scattering in all directions, like ants.
"Someone needs to distract it!" Kai yelled as the robot chased after him. He jumped forward, rolling out of the way of the metal foot that came down where he was standing just moments ago.
Zoë and Bianca shot a few arrows towards the walking metal fortress, only for them to bounce off, harmlessly.
Percy ran around on the ground, in the same situation as Kai, feeling quite useless. There was nothing a swordsman could do in this situation…
He glanced towards the power lines that lined the road. The ropes (In Percy's mind) would be a good way to tangle the robot. With its mobility cut down, perhaps the group would be able to find a way to defeat it.
"BIG METAL BEAST, YEAH, COME THIS WAY!" Percy shouted towards Talos.
The metal monster, seemingly able to hear Percy, turned towards him and away from Kai. In a fit of anger- which seemed to be exemplified by the sparks that flew from its face, it started chasing after Percy.
It felt like after just a single step, the metal monster had already closed most of the distance between them. Percy sprinted towards the power lines, as Zoë and Bianca tried to aim towards the metal monster's eyes, to no avail. Even if the arrows were able to hit the 'eye' nothing happened at all.
Another step and the power lines creaked as the metal monster's body pushed them forwards. Percy turned and ran around one of the poles, in an attempt to tangle the monster in the 'ropes'.
It worked, as the power lines snapped, and electricity shot through the monster's metal body. It seemed to make the monster pause and loud cracking sounds came from inside the body of Talos.
Suddenly, Bianca ran towards the monster's foot, and disappeared. In horror, Percy believed Bianca to be dead as he whirled around to look at Zoë who wore an equal expression of confusion and horror.
"She went inside of it!" Kai yelled from somewhere behind Percy.
"WHAT?" Zoë yelled, "Inside Talos?"
"There was a door on the foot of the monster, before I could say anything she ran off–"
A massive creaking sound came from inside the monsters, as its limbs jerked randomly, as if it were a puppet being controlled by a higher power. There was a blast of light from the inside of the monster, only visible from the hollow eyes of the monster. The quest group stood stunned, as they watched the metal monster explode outwards, and collapse into a dozen little pieces. The explosion left the road scattered with metal debrief and no sign of Bianca.
The metal flew outwards as a piece hit Percy, sending him flying backwards. Kai took cover in the nearby pile of metal scraps with Grover.
"BIANCA" Zoë cried out as she ran towards the metal scraps. Both Kai and Grover had a sense of despair as they watched the huntress dig through the metal scraps.
Percy groaned as he pushed off the metal finger that had slammed into him. He sat up, slightly dazed as he looked towards Zoë. The guardian already knew that the other huntress was gone, gone to another place, to visit her father in the underworld for a more permanent stay.
Percy pushed himself up as he walked towards Zoë who was still desperately searching around the scraps for any sign of the other Hunter.
He placed a hand on her back and said, "She's gone, Zoë."
"No…no… this can't be," Zoë whispered as she looked down at the ground. There wasn't even a trace of the Hunter's body.
From behind the two, Kai picked up the small statute that had caused this whole problem. It was one of the statues that he had seen Nico playing with before. Even though Bianca had joined the Hunters, she still always thought about her little brother. Her little brother… Kai suddenly realized that Nico was all alone now. His promise to him would go unfulfilled, he had been unable to protect Bianca.
Grover came back to the group and said that there was an old Pickup truck further down the road. The group walked towards it sullenly, as Zoë was about to get into the driver's seat. Percy placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered something into her ear that Kai and Grover weren't able to hear.
"Grover, can you drive?" Percy asked.
The satyr nodded without answering verbally, he got into the driver's seat. Kai walked around to the other side of the car and got into the passenger's seat as the guardian and the huntress got into the back of the pickup truck.
Grover started driving and the soft breeze started blowing around them, as Percy and Zoë sat in the back of the pickup truck.
There was a soft moment of silence before Percy spoke, "It's not your fault Zoë."
Zoë sniffled as she looked out towards the passing desert landscape, biting her lip, before she finally said, "It tis, I brought Bianca on this quest… I believed that she would be the next lieutenant of the hunt, and that this would be a good experience for her…"
Percy gingerly reached out a hand, putting it around her back, "I should've seen that maintenance hatch and gone. I'm sorry that it was Bianca who saw it first. It wasn't your fault that Bianca died though, this was fates doing."
"I thought you were going to fight fate for me, Perseus," Zoë said as she looked into Percy's eyes. Her eyes were watery and desperate as she looked at him with a range of emotions.
"I…" Percy said, not sure what to say as he remembered the promise that he made to her on the train, "I'm sorry, I should've been the one up there… I wouldn't have felt it anyways."
"Don't say that Perseus…" Zoë said as she buried her head into his shoulder. Percy could feel his shirt getting slightly wet as Zoë softly cried into his shoulder.
Percy felt helpless and distraught. It felt like he had let Zoë down— in a way he had, he supposed. He knew that the blessing that all Guardian's had received— the blessing of the River Styx, would have allowed him to survive Talos without harm… unless a piece of metal had hit him in the exact spot that his mortal point existed. Even though he was semi-immortal and had the blessing of the River Styx, he wasn't infallible.
Zoë knew that, which was exactly why she didn't blame him– rather she just needed someone that she could share her grief with. Percy knew that from now on, he had to focus on protecting Zoë, he couldn't fail her twice– he had promised to fight fate, and that's exactly what he was going to do.
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In the Front Seat of the Pickup truck…
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Kai had gotten into the passenger seat, knowing that Percy most likely wanted some alone time with Zoë in the back of the pickup truck.
As Grover started to drive Kai looked out the passenger window lost in thought. He felt the weight of Bianca's death on his shoulders. He had been the one to tell Bianca that there seemed to be a hatch on Talo's foot.
Why hadn't he gone? Why hadn't he stopped her— what was he going to say to Nico? The guilt of Bianca's death and failure to uphold the promise to Nico started to pile up on Kai's shoulder as he stared out the window.
"What's up man?" Grover asked Kai. They had been best friends for a long time, Grover knew when there was something up with Kai.
"Man… Just Bianca. It's my fault she…"
"It's not your fault. The prophecy said that one was going to be lost in the land without rain— you can't fight fate Kai."
"I don't know G man. I could've gone instead, I just don't know why I didn't– not mention Her younger brother…"
"Don't say that man, you think anyone else could be my best friend?" Grover said, his voice a little shaky. Kai paused feeling more guilty as he realized that his words had hurt Grover. He hadn't meant them in that way, yet they most definitely came out like that.
"Ah Grover…. Sorry, that's not what I meant," Kai said as he patted Grover's shoulder.
"There's no point thinking about that right now. You have to focus on saving Artemis and Annabeth," Grover said sternly, as he kept his eyes on the road.
"Yeah…" Kai said as he trailed off, looking back out the window. Briefly it crossed his mind how Percy and Zoë were doing, he looked back, peeking his head out the window and wasn't able to see back into the bed of the pickup truck.
"Leave them be man," Grover said as he grabbed Kai's shirt to pull him back inside.
"Yeah you're probably right…" Kai said trailing off as he sat back down in his seat.
There was another brief silence before Kai asked, "Grover, you think Pan is still out there somewhere?"
The satyr paused before he said, "Of course Kai. I think he's out there… waiting for someone to find him. When Pan returns, he will restore the wild and fix earth."
"Yeah..?"
"Yeah."
The two fell silent again. Kai knew that it had been Grover's mission— as it was most all satyr's to find Pan. No one ever had been able to find him though.
"I'm sure you'll be the one to find him, G-man," Kai said confidently as Grover smiled and continued to drive down the road.
"Yeah, me too."
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In the Back of the Pickup Truck…
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Zoë had drifted off to sleep, as Percy starred up towards the blue sky. It was a criminally beautiful day for the tragedy that had occurred during it. He let out a long sigh, perhaps it was time to tell Kai and Grover about the guardians true abilities.
Zoë already knew about the fact that the guardians were semi-immortal, similar to the Hunters. She also knew that all the guardians had been blessed in the River Styx, something that very few knew about. Occasionally she did forget about that fact, usually only once. Percy almost chuckled as he reflected, remembering how Zoë had dropped everything and ran to him in the museum after he had been launched like a cat toy by the Lion.
Percy raised his arm to itch his face, feeling a bug on it, inadvertently waking up Zoë.
"Mmmm" She mumbled as her eyes blinked open slowly.
Percy laughed softly as he looked at the huntress, "Sorry for waking you up."
"It's okay…" She mumbled as she rubbed her eyes, leaving her head on his shoulder.
She let out a soft, content sigh as she looked out at the road that was passing below them quickly. Grover had continued to drive.
"Why'd you accept the gods' offer?" Zoë asked suddenly.
Confused by the sudden question, Percy looked at her, "What offer?"
"You know… before you became a guardian."
There was a long moment of silence. Zoë knew the history of the guardians from Artemis no doubt. The goddess of the Hunt had been against the entire idea for some time. However, time and again the guardians proved themselves worthy of being needed.
"That…"
Zoë quickly pipped up saying, "Sorry… I shouldn't have asked, I know it's personal…"
"It's fine, I just haven't thought about that in a long time. It feels like forever ago- I guess it was," Percy said with a long, drawn out sigh.
The guardians of the present and past all had one thing in common. They had all been mortals who had begged the gods for some power to do something. When they had been granted this power, they were 'blessed' by the god who then after letting the mortal achieve the goal that had caused them to beg for the power, enslaved them into the life of a guardian. In debt for life, forced to live out eternity serving the gods in order to repay them for making them something other than a normal mortal— for giving them some of their power.
"I… I wished to save my family from bandits. I don't remember a lot from that time— I had a sister, a younger sister and my mother and father. I don't even remember their names now– it's been so long since then, only their faces. The way that they smiled everyday as we laughed, talked and lived. It was a simple life that we led. We were nothing special, nomads who roamed the earth in search of somewhere better, somewhere that had a warmer climate, more food, better shelter," Percy paused as he stared up into the blue sky. Zoë, her head resting on his shoulder still, lay silently, listening to his story, "One day, when we were packing to move, bandits attacked us. They were savage and ruthless people. The group that we traveled with— people that I can't even remember now, were killed viciously by them. I remember praying to the gods, for something, anything, some power to save my family from the grasps of the bandits."
There was a long pause as both Percy and Zoë looked out on the landscape around them.
"What happened..?" Zoë asked gingerly, as she placed a hand on his chest softly.
Percy stared at the silver crown that rested on her head as he said, "Ares gave me power, and a sword. This same sword— granted Hephaestus made some major improvements to it over the years. But… I killed the bandits. It was as if I had all the knowledge on swordsmanship and that I knew the vital points of the bandits without having ever fought before. I felt… superhuman. Which I guess I was at that point, with the blessing of Ares and all."
Zoë remained silent, for as long as she had known Percy, she had never known much about his past. Or the past of any of the guardians to be more specific. The guardians were a quiet, secretive bunch, their pasts were all dark places that none of them wished to return to.
"After that… I remember my family looking at me, scared. They thought I was some sort of guardian or god. They didn't see me as Percy, their son and brother, but as something else… something that needed to be honored. My family began to worship me for the deed that I had done. I realized at that moment that power… the same power that I had begged to have in order to save my own family, was the very thing that brought my life crashing down around me. After that, only a few days later, I remember Ares coming himself to bring me to Olympus… then it all started. I became a guardian then."
Zoë listened as Percy finished telling her the tale about how he had fallen into the clutches of Olympus.
"That's horrible… I can see why My Lady wishes for the guardians to be freed," Zoë said softly. She looked up at Percy, seeing the forlorn expression on his face as she reached up to cup his cheek.
Percy looked at her and smiled softly.
"Thank you for telling me," Zoë said, returning the soft smile.
"Yeah… Well a lot has happened since then. There are a lot less guardians and the blessing started to pile up," Percy said as he looked back out towards the desert.
"I am sure… but you were also able to save me. That I am forever grateful for. I don't think I will ever be able to repay you for that," Zoë said softly.
Percy recalled the time that he had gone to that local inn. Zoë had been there, but he remembered going to the garden, and seeing her laying there, lost and distraught.
"You can thank your mother and Poseidon for that… I was only following orders. However, I am so glad it was me and not another guardian– because I found someone that I really care about," Percy said softly, as he looked into Zoë's eyes.
Zoë felt her heart speed up, as Percy said those words. Her stomach was moving like crazy as she stared into those deep, sea-green eyes. Suddenly it felt like every one of her senses was going into overdrive, she could feel and hear Percy's quiet, heavy breath on the bridge of her nose. The way that his hand rested around her back and on her waist. She couldn't get any words out of her mouth as her face slowly grew red as she blushed.
The car suddenly sputtered out, and slowly came to a stop as the pair looked around wondering what was wrong.
Grover called from the front, "We're out of gas and the road comes to an end here anyways."
"Oh gods…" Zoë muttered for more reasons than just the gas.
"I think we need to go to the river," Grover said as he got out of the car, closing the door behind him.
The group walked towards the edge of the canyon, and looked down.
"On what path," Kai asked.
Grover pointed to a goat path and said, "That one, I think we can make it."
"That's a goat path," Kai said as he looked at Grover, "The rest of us aren't goats. I don't really feel like falling to my death, let's go a little further up the river."
A half a mile later and the group came to an easier slope that led down to a closed canoe rental shop.
"We need to go upstream," Zoë said, her voice sounding like she had the flu, "The rapids are too swift."
Kai cast a worried look in her direction. It seemed that all that time in the back of the pickup with Percy hadn't fully knocked her out of her slump, as he said, "Leave that to me."
Soon there were two boats in the water, both Percy and Kai turned to get oars for the boats.
"Hey, Kai."
"Sup Percy?"
"Do you mind going with Zoë? I think you both need to talk since I get the feeling that you're blaming yourself for Bianca's death."
Kai paused, going silent as the guardian read him like an open book.
"I- sure…" Kai finally said as he picked up the oars.
The two walked back and got into the canoes, Percy and Grover in one and Zoë with Kai in the other.
Kai leaned over the side of the boat, getting ready to control the currents when he saw two naiads.
"Hey, we're heading upstream, do you think you can lend us a hand?" Kai asked the naiads, who immediately selected a boat each and started pushing.
The boats shot off so fast that Grover fell backwards, hooves up, as Percy laughed at him.
"I hate naiads," Zoë grumbled.
A stream of water shot out of the stream and hit Zoë in the face, as she said, "She-devils!" and reached for her bow.
"Woahh!" Kai said, stopping her, "They're just playing."
"Cursed water spirits, they've never forgiven me."
"Forgiven you for what?"
Zoë slung her bow back over her shoulder and said, "Never mind, it was a long time ago."
The boats sped up as the canyon cliffs loomed up on either side of them.
Kai finally spoke, "What happened to Bianca… it wasn't your fault. I let her go, it was my idea, it was my fault."
Zoë's shoulders slumped her shoulders, "No Kai, I pushed Bianca into going on this quest. She was a powerful half-blood, and one with a big heart. I thought that she may have been the next lieutenant of the hunt."
"But you're the lieutenant."
Zoë's expression was tired, and she gripped the strap of her sling tightly, "For more than two-thousand years I have led the hunt as Artemis' lieutenant and my wisdom had not improved. Now, Artemis herself is in danger. Nothing lasts forever Kai."
"You're blaming yourself for Artemis' capture," Kai noted as he stared at Zoë's back.
"If I had insisted on going with her–"
"You think that you could've helped fight off something that captured Artemis?"
Zoë fell silent at Kai's words. There was truth to them, as the boats continued moving upstream. The cliffs grew taller, the shadows making it a lot colder than it really was outside.
Kai suddenly took out riptide and said, "You made this."
"Who told thee?"
"I had a dream," Kai said. He was almost certain that Zoë was going to call him crazy or a lunatic.
Instead she just sighed and said, "It was a gift, and a mistake."
"A gift to who?"
Zoë shook her head and said, "Do not make me say his name. I swore to never speak it again."
"You act like I should know this hero."
Zoë almost snorted, "I'm sure you do. Don't most male hero's want to be like him?" Her voice was filled with bitterness as she looked out onto the water.
"Your mother was a water goddess right?" Kai asked, deciding to change the subject a bit.
"Yes, Pleonie. She had five daughters, myself and the Hesperides."
"Weren't there only four Hesperides though?" Kai asked, confused.
"There are now. I was exiled and forgotten. Blotted from history as if I had never existed," Zoë answered back.
"Why?"
Zoë pointed towards the pen that Kai was holding, "Because I betrayed my family and helped a hero. You won't find that in the legend either. He never mentioned me. After his assault on Landon failed, I gave him the idea about how to steal the apples and trick my father. He took all the credit for it."
"But—" The gurgle in his mind made him look up and realize why the canoe was slowing down.
"Hoover dam…" Grover said as he looked up at the towering dam.
The group got out of the canoe, letting them float back down the river.
"Wow I remember when people were talking about this thing being under construction!" Percy said with a laugh.
"Seven hundred feet tall, five million cubic acres of water," Percy said.
Grover sighed and said, "Largest construction project in the United States."
Zoë stared at the three of them and said, "Why do you two know that and why do you Percy even know of this things dam existence?"
"Annabeth, she loved talking about this thing," Kai said.
"Wow, that was a good 'dam' joke!" Percy said to Zoë laughing at her inadvertent joke.
Kai laughed and said, "We should go up there to tell Annabeth that we've been there."
"Shut up! I didn't mean to say it like that," The hunter said, looking at Percy, her cheeks flushing red. She cleared her throat and said, "Well. The road is up there so sightseeing it is."
End of Chapter 10.