𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐂! percy jackson

xli. Backstage Blues

━━ chapter forty-one
backstage blues

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

    ━━Percy is so done with water. 

    Now, of course, if he said that out loud, he probably would be kicked out of Poseidon's Junior Sea Scouts (or something), but he really didn't care at this point. After barely surviving the nymphaeum, he wanted to go back to the surface. He wanted to be dry and sit in the warm sunshine for a long time━preferably with Fiona.

   Unfortunately, Fiona, Leo and Hazel were all missing in action. That didn't make him feel any better in the slightest. They were supposed to report back to them, and they never did. What if they were━no, Percy refused to think that way. They were alive. Fiona was alive. And Annabeth was alive, too. He still had to save Nico di Angelo, and he should focus on that, assuming he wasn't dead already. (Oh, yeah, and there was that little matter of the giants destroying Rome, waking Gaea and taking over the world). 

    Surely, these monsters and gods could take a few decades off and let Percy live his life, they were thousands of years old! But, apparently not. 

    He took the lead as they crawled down the drainage pipe. After thirty feet, it opened into a wider tunnel. To their left, somewhere in the distance, Percy heard rumbling and creaking, like some huge machine needed some serious oiling. He had absolutely no desire to find out what was making that sound, so he figured that must be the way to go.

    Percy would have rathered Sam stay with Coach Hedge on the Argo than follow them along in this dangerous quest. But he had insisted. And while he might be a bit of a liability, and was breathing heavily with fear at Percy's side, he had been the one to have dreamt about Nico's imprisonment. He was supposed to be here, and while he hated it, Percy knew that in his gut. 

    He clutched a dagger he had stolen from one of the dolphin-pirates. It was his only weapon, and he's had it just a day. But he clutched onto it like it was his lifeline, holding it out with trembling fingers. Sam had practiced a few times with Fiona, and once with Percy. He regretted not teaching the kid more. He remembered being his age: scared, facing an enemy far larger than himself, and with the weight of the world on his shoulders. (Literally). 

    Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn in the tunnel. Percy held up his hand, signalling Sam, Jason and Piper to wait. He peeked around the corner. 

    The corridor opened up into a vast room with twenty-foot ceilings and rows of support columns. He felt a twist in his stomach, recognising it as the place in his dreams, but now much more crowded with random stuff.

    The creaking and rumbling came from huge gears and pulley systems that raised and lowered sections of the floor for no apparent reason. Water flowed through the trenches (yay, more water), powering waterwheels that turned some of the machines. Others were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds running inside. His anger grew━he couldn't help but see Mrs O'Leary.

    There was more: suspended from above were cages of live animals━a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas and even an eight-headed hydra. It reminded Percy of the Amazon centre in Seattle, watching all the bronze ancient-looking conveyor belts tundling along with stacks of weapons and armour. 

    "What is it?" Piper whispered.

    Percy wasn't sure how to answer, or if he even knew the right answer. He couldn't see the giants, so he gestured for his friends to come forward and take a look.