ANTI-HERO, j.grace

NINE

     Klein Maddox could recall seeing those commercials on TV that would always end with "don't operate heavy machinery under the influence of" whatever sketchy medicine they were advertising. She was almost one hundred perfect sure that a giant flying dragon would be considered heavy machinery, and that Leo-hallucinating-and-talking-to-himself-Valdez was no longer fit to drive.

He dubbed it fine, Klein dubbed it a safety hazard. Alas the Valdez wouldn't let her drive instead, citing 'have you ever flown a mechanical dragon?', to which Klein responded 'have you ever been thrown off of one?'.

Funny as it may have been, the quest-goers then had to establish that Klein Maddox was absolutely not allowed to push anyone off of Festus - even Jason, who could fly.

Still, even the distraction did little to quell the girls growing nerves. Part of her hoped that the dragon would malfunction and that would be the end of it - no quest, no Hera, no more fighting.

While it sounded like an okay way out to her, Klein could only imagine Kieran's face when she met him in the afterlife - if she was even slightly good enough to land in the same section of the underworld as he certainly had (which she lost certainly wasn't). There was no doubt that he would find it beyond comical that her untimely demise came from a dragon crash rather than the heroic quest she was intended for.

Thought that was only if she saw him again. And given that Kieran Maddox was a hero and Klein Maddox was anything but, the possibility of that was impossibly small.

That mesh of thoughts absolutely did not make Klein's time in the air any more enjoyable.

"The giants - well, there were a lot of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking of the right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the earth - I mean the first Titan war, thousands of years ago - and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants-"

"Chiron said that it was happening again." Jason recalled, "The last chapter. That's what he meant... no wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."

Still not a good enough reason to send them blindly on a death quest, in Klein Maddox's extremely unprofessional opinion.

"There's also giants." Piper noted, "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."

"Hold on, giants - like... more than one?" Leo frowned, "Why can't it be just one giant who wants revenge?"

"Because that would be making our lives easier." Klein said, earning a chuckle from Jason that he tried his best to hide.

"So... giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks." Leo whistled as recounted Jason's story and "plan" like he was making some sort of shopping list from hell, "Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter?"

It was absolutely not the time to bring up the psycho babysitter, and learning that Tía Callida was actually Hera only solidified that. Even worse, Leo told the group about the sleeping earth woman who seemed to know the future - a terrible future.

Maybe Klein actually would die via quest.

"That is all wildly disturbing."

"I know." Leo not-exactly mused, "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleash her rage. So I'm wondering... why are we doing this?"

Preach! was the only thing running through Klein's mind. But Piper and Jason both fell silent at Leo's words, and with the most spot-on 'are you kidding me' look on her face at the lack of response, Klein pushed her head forwards.