madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

- fatal flaws-

"Excellent!" The giant roared as Jason approached, completely ignoring Teqi, as she had assumed. "An appetizer! Who are you—Hermes? Ares?" 

Jason looked like he wanted to, to play pretend and maybe have a chance of scaring this guy, but one look towards Teqi and he chose not to. "I'm Jason Grace," he said. "Son of Jupiter."

Leo's saw started up again behind them, along with Piper's shaking voice. Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus, you sacrifice a son to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."

The sky didn't even rumble. No help from above. Teqi knew the gods weren't going to help with this fight, if the giant actually destroyed Hera and gained control, the minor gods would try to ally with Gaea, on the off chance she accepted and they weren't killed.

"If you knew who I was," Jason yelled up at the giant. "You'd be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."

Someone was definitely acting more confident than they felt, pop off bestie. The giant's clear white eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. 

"So ... we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tatarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera."

"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera growled from her thickening cage. "He'll do it again!"

"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants, and she will get the weapon. Our armies will shake the earth—and we will destroy you at the roots."

"You wouldn't dare," Hera whispered, but she was weakening. Teqi could hear it in her voice, her power was draining by the second. Piper kept whispering to the cage, and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, up to her waist.

"Oh, yes," the giant revelled. "The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned."

The giant frowned at Piper and Leo, as if he'd just noticed them working at the cage. Jason stepped forward and yelled to get back Porphyrion's attention, Teqi just waited behind him quietly with her gold knife in hand.

"You said a demigod killed you," Jason shouted, stepping closer. "How, if we're so puny?"

"Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus's replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, child, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!"

"That's domestic violence!" Teqi spat, after he threatened Hera, sure, she would have loved to take the goddesses life force, but not in that way. "Not cool!"