madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-I was tired so the fates updated the fic instead✌️-

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering... and show me Will Solace."

Piper chewed her lip, which she was doing far too much lately, and spots of blood coated her tongue after a moment. She ignored the stinging pain, because nothing could be as worse as the conversation she was about to have.

Her sweaty hands were wiped on her pants, and she took a deep breath, watching as the coin she tossed disappeared into the wiggly sort of air in front of her. Then the head of the Apollo cabin was in front of her.

"What happened? Please tell me she's okay." His expression told Piper that he already knew something bad had happened, and that he knew Teqi wasn't okay. "Is she okay?"

Piper felt her puffy eyes tear up again and Will's face fell. "No, please, Piper she has to be-"

"Who is it? Did you IM Annabeth yet?" Someone Piper couldn't see called from the other end of the infirmary, where Will had sat down on the end of a hospital bed, face blank and emotionless like a ghost.

Red curls entered the mirage, and a distraught Racheal turned to Piper, eyebrows knitted. There was a white plaster on her cheek and dark streaks under her eyes. Her bright green eyes widened. "Piper, finally, you need to tell us what happened, did you get Nico back? Who is it? Please tell me it's not-"

The gross feeling in Piper's stomach doubled and she felt like throwing up. "How do you all know? Have they contacted you?"

Racheal's dead eyed expression wavered. "What are you talking about?"

Piper gulped. How on earth did she get voted to make this call? Right, Jason was terrible at comforting people, neither Hazel or Frank even knew anyone at Camp Half-blood, and Leo was still in the engine room, where he'd been all day. She'd have to go down with dinner later and make sure he was, well, he wouldn't be okay, to make sure he was still alive, really. 

She wiped her hand again and took a deep breath, feeling a twinge of pain in her bandaged shoulder. "Annabeth found the Mark of Athena, the statue. It was in this cavern, and then... then the floor started falling in- and- uhm.... She fell in... with Percy."

Racheal covered her mouth with a shaky hand. Piper couldn't see Will in the small wavering mirage. She didn't think she wanted to.

"Nico, we found him, Nico was there, and the floor kept falling. He said that it would have sent them both down, so Teqi...she...pushed him to safety and... All three of them, they're down there, now."

"Down where?"

"...Tartarus."

Racheal spun around as a loud crash echoed through the infirmary and then through Piper's trashed cabin. The red head was out of view for a moment and Piper could hear her saying something to Will in a low rushed tone.

Then Will was visible, a long dark red gash across his face, and vague eyes, like he was somewhere far away. "Is she..."

"Nico said they're all... alive." Piper looked down at her feet, feeling the lump in her throat grow tenfold, until tears threatened to spill again. "We're going to meet them at the door of death and close them, cause they... Tartarus is on the other side of them, we're gonna rescue them all I promise- Will, we're gonna get them-"

"Just stop!" He snapped, "stop. You don't know that, no one survives Tartarus! Piper, no one gets out!"

"Nico did," She argued, the tears falling as Will's did. "He went down there to close the doors, and- and he survived. They'll get out, Teqi's strong. She's a lot stronger than you think now, she's...she's...."

"Not a demigod anymore?" Racheal asked, coming back into view with a bandage.

She lifted up Will's and, and Piper watched as she wrapped up bloody red knuckles, picking shards of glass out of the blonde's fist. Then a wipe cleaned the blood off his cheek and those white strips of band aid held the cut on his cheek together.

Piper felt like her veins had been frozen, like Khione had decided now was the perfect time for revenge. She heart spent a long moment before it started pumping blood again, and her voice sounded distant to her own ears. "How do... how do you know?"

"I told you it was her," Will muttered to Racheal, who dumped the bloody tissues and bandage wrappers somewhere Piper couldn't see. "She called me and said her powers were changing, that she was...well, 'completely fucked up and bloodthirsty and killing people isn't that bad of a thing to do'...in... in her own words."

Racheal turned to him with a sharp glare, "she isn't a weapon, Will."

"How do you know!?" Piper asked again, raising her voice.

Racheal ducked her head guiltily, and her lip wobbled. She took a deep breath though and put on a brave face, something Piper had been doing a lot of lately.

"...I had another prophecy."

Piper's body floated away from her, like her mind had been put somewhere else. She vaguely remembered feeling the same when Hera revealed her true form. This was what painfully deep shock felt like, she realised. "What?"

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, for storm or fire, the world must fall," Will said numbly, and Piper had a feeling he was in shock as well, the same kind of shock that shot through Piper's body when Nico came up that rope ladder alone, with a broken look on his pale face.

"An oath to keep with the final breath, foes bear arms to the Doors of death. Hidden powers stolen at birth; the weapon will use them with great mirth." Racheal glanced at both of them and tugged on her tight curls anxiously, matted red hair behind her spotty headband springing back into place when she let go. 

"A preacher turned preached shall not see until it's too late, and steps through the darkened gate."

Just to make sure you understand I didn't use ChatGPT or an ai to write this [and I never will], the title is because of the new prophecy <3