Piper thought about how this was another incident that she would have to add to the 'Top 10 times she felt useless' list and how it wasn't effective to fight the Shrimpzilla only with a pretty face and voice and how she was unable to do anything when any of her friends had disappeared.
Piper looked straight at a wall and nobody in particular. She couldn't bring herself to look at Silena or Jason who were looking at her with concern but she felt grateful when Silena kept her hand on her shoulder and when Jason interlocked his fingers with hers.
Aphrodite frowned to herself as she heard Piper's thoughts. She knew that Piper wasn't always in tune or in favor of her powers and that she often underestimated herself and yet she didn't realize that it was to an extent that she felt like she was useless in a fight. She knew that Piper didn't think those were skills that she could use in a fight and that she would have compared herself with the other demigods like Percy or Jason who had more visible powers, she hoped that she would be able to help Piper realize that the skill set that she possessed would actually go a long way in helping her.
Piper thought about how everybody (including Buford) on the ship went around trying to patch the ship about and how Percy, despite being exhausted scoured the seabed to look for their friends and how even though Jason was exhausted was flying around like a blonde Peter Pan, trying to deal with the fires.
Zeus, Hera and Poseidon felt exhaustion creep into them and it was honestly, a feeling that they did not enjoy seeing as they already had felt tired enough which, they realized in retrospect, was something Jason and Percy and the other demigods had also felt.
Piper was staring at Katoptris trying to locate their friends.
Dionysus and Aphrodite grimaced as they heard that.
"Not the wisest choice seeing as you would probably see things you absolutely don't want to but I suppose it would have seemed necessary at the moment." Dionysus sighed to Piper.
She saw visions of the Romans in black SUVs driving north from Charleston with giant eagles escorting them as well glowing purple spirits appearing often and thundering toward New York and CHB. She saw herself, Jason and Percy struggling to stay afloat in black water. She stopped looking and wondering how Helen of Troy had stayed sane but then realized that maybe she hadn't.
"She didn't stay completely sane." Dionysus said bluntly.
"But the knife can't be completely tortuous. I mean it may show something useful as well?" Rachel furrowed her eyebrows.
"It'll show you what's going to happen not how you can get out of it. And if that's all its going to show you then what's the point of even looking at it because all that's going to do is scare you. You're going to wait for that vision to happen. You won't be able to take your mind of it. You would think that every time something happened, that was it. Its very difficult to bend that knife's visions to show you what you actually want to do and most of the time, the amount of stuff you see in that process drives you insane before you see what you wish to see." Dionysus explained. Rachel nodded in understanding.
"But it was an emergency at that point of time." Piper said. "Isn't that a time that you should at least try and use it?" she asked. Dionysus tilted his head and then finally nodded.
"Maybe. Seeing as you didn't know what was happening to the other 3 and other attempts were futile, I suppose it does make sense for you to attempt looking at Katoptris but what I'm saying is that its beyond dangerous for that to become a habit." He said. Piper nodded as she tried to process the severity of Dionysus' words.
Nobody slept till the sun rose the next day. Percy hadn't found anything even though he scoured the sea floor. The ship wasn't in danger of sinking but they weren't able to fully repair it without Leo and the positive was that nobody had recommended leaving without their friends. Piper and Annabeth sent a dream vision to Chiron and explained the incident at the Fort, Piper's knife vision and Annabeth's conversation with Reyna. Piper thought that Chiron's face seemed to age 30 years while listening to him.
The seven demigods looked sheepishly at Chiron who just gave a small smile.
"You have to be prepared for bad news when 7 demigods are on a quest to prevent a primordial from rising." He said.
"Yeah but once in a while even we'd like to give you some good news apart from the result of those wars." Annabeth sighed. Chiron smiled warmly at her.
"My dear, that news is enough to make feel 100 years younger." He said gently, making Annabeth give a small smile.
Chiron informed them that Tyson, Ella and Mrs. O'Leary had reached camp safely and that he would see to the defenses. Tyson could always summon an army at his will and Rachel and Ella were already comparing prophecies. He told them that it was the job of the 7 demigods to finish the quest and return safely. The demigods paced the deck, looking at the water as they all hoped for a miracle. When the hamster balls did reach, Piper cried out in relief and jumped in the water without a life vest or rope to meet the three demigods.
Aphrodite was now drenched and she shuddered lightly at how cold the water was and yet, one thing that kept her from feeling annoyed by being drenched was that she could also feel Piper's relief course through her.
Piper was so relieved that she surprised Leo by kissing him on the cheek and the son of Hephaestus cheekily asked her if she missed him. Piper was then furious and started asking them where they were. Leo told her that it was a long story and asked her if she wanted a brownie. They then got on board and Frank had to borrow a pair of too-small pants from Jason and went for a celebratory breakfast except the Coach. The three demigods told the others the whole story. Jason was amazed by how amazingly good the brownies were.
Everybody burst out laughing at Jason's comment.
"How was that your only comment after hearing the whole story?" Connor wheezed. Jason grinned sheepishly.
"I mean, I got the story but those brownies." He sighed, remembering the taste. His reaction just made everybody laugh harder.
"No but like no judgement whatsoever there. Those brownies were peak." Percy nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. Like, never had better brownies. That couldn't have been just because of less butter." Frank sighed, going back to just how absolutely delicious they were.
"You guys are ridiculous." Thalia snickered.
"Oh shut up. You didn't taste those brownies!" Jason defended, making everybody laugh again. Thalia put her hands up in a surrender gesture.
"Whoa now. I concede." She said with a grin. Jason nodded with approval.
"That's your only comment…"Pass me the jar, man"
Now, everybody was just laughing their heads off.
"Come on now! It was delicious!" Jason said in exasperation.
"I find that hard to believe." Nico choked out.
"That's because you never tried it!" Frank defended.
"Y'know what? We've got to make him try that combination." Percy smirked.
"Hell to mother-" Nico started but then took a look at Persephone's raised eyebrows and cleared his throat "Motherfreaking no." he completed even though that was not what was initially intended.
"Hell to motherfreaking yes." Percy said in a sing along voice. Nico looked with wide, terrified eyes at Hades who snickered and looked at Percy then.
"Record a video." He said nonchalantly. Nico gasped dramatically, making Hades smirk at his son and Nico pouted at him.
Hazel and Piper…Boys.
All the ladies in the room nodded in agreement while all the guys dramatically flourished their hands to their chests as if they'd practiced it.
"I cannot possibly understand how you would like peach with brownies." Persephone said finally, as if she was trying her best to imagine how it would taste and did not like whatever the result was.
"See, you've got to try new things in order to know if they actually taste good or not." Percy said in the wisest tone that he could muster. "Now, exhibit A, does banana and ketchup taste good? Absolutely not. And how do I know that? Because I experienced." He said.
"Ohhh man." Chris groaned as he gagged and held his stomach.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Katie said miserably. Everybody else looked so green that it felt like they all shared Katie's sentiment.
"How in all of our names did you come up with this monstrosity?" Hades asked, looking extremely green himself.
"It wasn't intentional." Percy said sheepishly. "Mom, Paul and I had gone on a dinner and like, there were these bowls with what looked like red fruit syrup to me so I took it and poured some over the banana and I ate it but like it was actually ketchup." He explained.
"Okay, yeah, I'm going to be sick." Chris said weakly and leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes in order to not throw up.
"This is one of the most horrifying stories that I have ever heard." Triton groaned.
"Please tell me you realized that it was ketchup as soon as you ate it." Artemis said to Percy and was relieved when Percy nodded.
"Yeah, almost. Like I ate it and as soon as I chewed it-" Percy started. More groans were heard in the room. "-I realized something was wrong so like I just swallowed it and did not repeat the mistake." He finished.
"What do you mean you swallowed it?" Nico asked with trauma flashing in his eyes.
"I mean, I'd already chewed it." Percy shrugged.
"Percy." Poseidon groaned. "Please tell me you haven't had more experiments like this." He said.
"I wish I could." He said.
"Wow. Well, I think if we talk about this more, my digestion is going to get wrecked so we're just going to continue reading." Demeter managed to say and not a single person complained.
Percy, for his part…want to meet me?"
Everybody snickered at that, glad that they were no longer talking about ketchup.
"Bro was personally hurt." Dakota chuckled.
"Emotional damage." Nico chortled.
"Not funny." Percy pouted.
"Just a bit." Triton grinned at him.
"I don't like you." Percy complained to him.
"Now, its funnier." Triton teased and Percy pouted at him.
Annabeth swatted his arm…he would be rescued.
Ares suppressed a shudder at the way Piper had described what Nico might have been feeling. He knew it all too well firsthand.
"I was not really thinking at the moment. It was kind of a hibernation stage for me." Nico shrugged. Hades grimaced at that but he thought about how, at least, Nico hadn't had to feel the claustrophobia to the same extent that he would have had he not had the pomegranate seeds. The thought offered little comfort and yet, it made the situation seem very minorly better.
It made Piper…"It's blank!"
"Wait what?" Thalia frowned.
"It only shows itself to a child of Athena. It won't reveal itself in front of other demigods because of security concerns." Percy sighed.
Percy took it…hand him a napkin
Frank's ears flushed red.
"It was a good dessert." He defended weakly. Piper chuckled.
"Don't worry about it, Frank. I've had chocolate all over my mouth a ridiculous number of times as well." She comforted him. Frank looked like he felt better about it.
"It's a pity that the curse didn't work right now." Hermes whispered to Apollo who snickered. Dionysus and Artemis overheard the two and they both suppressed their smiles at that.
"What did it have…Area of Effect?"
"That is an understandable assumption and yet it makes no sense in that context." Connor chuckled lightly.
"Hey, you never know." Leo shrugged.
"It's alpha, theta…to the source."
The seven except Percy and Annabeth winced, remembering exactly what had happened at the source. Nico gave the duo a small, sad smile.
"That is horribly depressing." Michael deadpanned, talking about Annabeth had to solo the quest.
Frank took the…thing at the source?"
Annabeth winced and Percy squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"It doesn't sound good, whatever it is." Hermes shook his head.
"It doesn't sound easy either. Definitely not a regular monster." Ares agreed.
"Well, at least Annabeth made it out." Hestia sighed and gave the daughter of Athena a warm smile. Annabeth didn't have the heart to tell the goddess of the Hearth that they had made it out in possibly the most unorthodox and most unpreferred way possible.
Before Annabeth could…"What statue?"
"Yeah, the rest of us were so lost." Hazel said with a small smile. Annabeth and Jason grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry about that." They said.
"Ah, don't worry about it." Hazel laughed and waved it off.
Annabeth took back…a much tamer goddess.
Athena scowled and clenched her fists.
"Okay, that's actually so insanely ridiculous." Clarisse frowned. While, she was beginning to understand why Athena was so angry at the Romans, one thing even she didn't like was the amount of the demigods who had been sacrificed in order to retrieve the statue when the goddess knew that they weren't the one. Besides, these Romans weren't the ones who had stolen the statue but still…Clarisse understood some part of the goddess' anger.
"That's true. I mean that was really not fair." Pollux sighed. The Romans grimaced but kept quiet as they were unsure of what to say.
"And the children of…two camps, after all.
"That's nice. Stay positive." Aphrodite encouraged.
"Thanks mom. We tried." Piper sighed with a small smile.
Percy seemed be having… "Woven, like webs."
Everybody except those who knew and those who had guessed (Apollo) frowned. Hermes and Artemis froze as they looked at Apollo whose eyebrows were furrowed as he tightened his grip on the armrest of the couch, his slight doubt also erased.
"Brother…" Artemis trailed off. Hermes and her didn't need Apollo to answer to know from one look at his face, that they were correct with their guess.
Annabeth's face turned…panic and terror.
Athena almost gasped as she felt Annabeth's emotions of fear run high in her. She knew that her children were frightened of spiders let alone of Arachne but even she did not think just how much even the mere thought scared them.
"We'll deal with that…friend's nerves.
"I appreciate you trying to help using charmspeak, Pipes but please, never do that again." Annabeth requested her friend. Piper nodded and gave Annabeth an apologetic look.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I used it way too much initially." She shook her head. Annabeth gave her a small smile.
It's going to…Never bet against Annabeth.
"He's definitely not wrong." Grover smiled at Annabeth, knowing just what she had put herself through during her search and he knew most if not all the details of what had happened to his best friends in the Pit. He'd found out partially due to the empathy link but most of it came from Percy telling him and from Nico's stories as well as the small bits that Annabeth felt safe telling him.
"Agreed. People who bet against you should genuinely watch out." Thalia agreed. Annabeth smiled gratefully at both of them as well as Piper and Percy. Percy returned it and squeezed her hand in support, knowing that this part wasn't easy for Annabeth to hear.
Annabeth looked at them…they get to break the rules.
"You just don't know how to." Percy smirked at Piper who stuck her tongue out at him, making Percy smirk turn even more smug. "Y'all are amateurs." He said. Jason exchanged a look with Piper and both of them simultaneously flipped Percy off, making the son of the sea god laugh.
"Made for each other indeed." He said and winked at the couple.
But Jason wasn't like…didn't come naturally to him.
Zeus' expression morphed from one of amusement to seriousness as he read that description of Jason. He as well as his brothers knew that their children had much more responsibility than everybody thought but to know that Jason had eventually grown into somebody who had to act as a leader and set an example and thus, avoid doing what he might want to hit closer to home than Zeus liked.
"Honestly, I don't mind breaking the rules as long as I'm among friends. I mean I really don't care about breaking the rules in front of all these guys now." Jason shrugged, gesturing to the demigods in the room. "I guess its probably because I know that there's no judgement from them so it feels much easier." He explained to the curious gazes that were sent his way.
No doubt Reyna admired…would he do it?
"I'd break the rules for you a million times if you asked me." Jason told Piper solemnly, making Aphrodite squeal and made Silena coo. Piper couldn't help but blush and Jason grinned at her.
"We've got to mail that dialogue to some romance author." Nico chuckled and everybody agreed.
She swept the hay…was just mortifying.
"Oh come on, dear. Embarrassing your children is part of the rights of all parents, godly or not." Aphrodite teased Piper who turned red and buried her face in her hands.
"Mom." She groaned and Aphrodite chuckled.
Aphrodite had paid…copy of a tabloid magazine.
"It's not like that, Piper." Aphrodite said gently. "They had more urgent problems that needed to be dealt with. We could always talk about Jason later when there was less of a time constraint to do so. And the conversation that I had with Reyna was between her and me. I wouldn't reveal it to her friends or at that time, her opponents." She explained. Piper nodded.
"I know, mom. I know." She sighed and rubbed her neck, embarrassed of her old-self.
All of you are such…She's so…Roman."
Reyna sighed. She knew that Jason would have probably talked to Piper about this and yet, she felt like she should say something but the only problem was that this was one of those times when Reyna did not know what to say and decided to just let the moment pass.
Jason put down his hammer…burned on his forearm.
Jason sighed and squeezed Piper's hand. A look at Piper's face made him understand that Piper no longer felt like that and yet, it bothered him that when it did, he wasn't able to do anything about it.
Above them, the…Percy/Annabeth scandal
"What scandal?!" Percy squeaked, throwing his hands up in exasperation. Everybody snickered.
"The son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena sneak out to make out!" Katie smirked, gesturing as if she was reading a headline of a tabloid of the kind that people read in the bathrooms.
"Oh shut up. We were mostly talking." Percy retorted. "Y'all are making it sound so unholy." He complained, making everybody's snickering turn into laughter. Annabeth's agreement with Percy just made it worse.
Once the laughter stopped, Travis raised his hand as if he wanted to ask a doubt. Everybody looked at him.
"I have a small question. Why did the coach not think that you could literally just untie the bells?" he raised an eyebrow.
"I guess he figured that we wouldn't dare to." Piper smirked. "And anyways it was more about the embarrassment." She shrugged.
Piper shuddered…a good night's sleep.
"Gonna be hard to get." Michael chuckled.
"Chapter's done." Demeter said.
"I'll read." Hephaestus volunteered.