𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄, PJ2

𝟎𝟐𝟗.𝟑

Leo was still in shock. Everything had happened so quickly. They had secured grappling lines to the Athena Parthenos just as the floor gave way, and the final columns of webbing snapped. Jason and Frank dove down to save the others, but they'd only found Nico, Augustus, Percy and Hazel hanging from the rope ladder. 

Juliet and Annabeth were gone. The pit to Tartarus had been buried under several tons of debris. Leo pulled the Argo II out of the cavern seconds before the entire place imploded, taking the rest of the parking lot with it.

The news from Coach's tv blared about the large magnitude earth quake hitting Rome. Leo gulped, Percy Jackson was still hoarsely yelling in at the scene of the catastrophe, desperately looking for Juliet. The increasing water levels of the city and the overcast was making everything more ominous.

For the first time Leo saw Augustus looking broken, the boy who could make jokes even when face with death was now limply sitting on the floor of the ship, his eyes shattered and face blank, as if his soul had left his body.

The Argo II was now parked on a hill overlooking the city. Jason, Hazel, and Frank had returned to the scene, hoping to dig through the rubble and find a way to save Juliet and Annabeth, and get Percy back on the ship but they'd come back demoralized. 

The cavern was simply gone. The scene was swarming with police and rescue workers. No mortals had been hurt, but the Italians would be scratching their heads for months, wondering how a massive sinkhole had opened right in the middle of a parking lot and swallowed a dozen perfectly good cars. The Police pulled a frantic Percy back, trying to detain him, but he was like a rabid dog, punching people and yelling curses.

Finally when it got to the point where he started harming himself, Jason electrocuted him to fall limp and carried him back to the ship. Leo realised then, to be loved by Percy Jackson was not sweet but haunting.

Dazed with grief, Leo and the others carefully loaded the Athena Parthenos into the hold, using the ship's hydraulic winches with an assist from Frank Zhang, part-time elephant. The statue just fit, though what they were going to do with it, Leo had no idea.

Coach Hedge was too miserable to help. He kept pacing the deck with tears in his eyes, pulling at his goatee and slapping the side of his head, muttering, "I should have saved them! I should have blown up more stuff!" 

Finally, Leo told him to go belowdecks and secure everything for departure. He wasn't doing any good beating himself up.

The six demigods gathered on the quarterdeck and gazed at the distant column of dust still rising from the site of the implosion.

Leo rested his hand on the Archimedes sphere, which now sat on the helm, ready to be installed. He should have been excited. It was the biggest discovery of his life—even bigger than Bunker 9. If he could decipher Archimedes's scrolls, he could do amazing things. He hardly dared to hope, but he might even be able to build a new control disk for a certain dragon friend of his.

Still, the price had been too high.

He could almost hear Nemesis laughing. I told you we could do business, Leo Valdez.

He had opened the fortune cookie. He'd gotten the access code for the sphere and saved Frank and Hazel. But the sacrifice had been Juliet and Annabeth. Leo was sure of it. He looked at Augustus, sitting on the floor, still looking like a rag doll.

"It's my fault," he said miserably.

The others stared at him. Only Hazel seemed to understand. She'd been with him at the Great Salt Lake.

"No," she insisted. "No, this is Gaea's fault. It had nothing to do with you."

Leo wanted to believe that, but he couldn't. They'd started this voyage with Leo messing up, firing on New Rome. They'd ended in old Rome with Leo breaking a cookie and paying a price much worse than an eye.