The Final Quest ψ; Blood of Olympus & Percy Jackson Fanfic༄

IV. ΡΙΡΕR

Piper:

We sat below the deck of the Argo II, meeting around the table in the center room. Goblets filled with whatever we wanted, but at that time, no one had much of an appetite.

We couldn't help noticing the empty chair pulled up to the table, sticking out like a sore thumb. Nico was here, so he filled the abscence of one chair, but the other represented the missing.

Percy, most likely dead, or imprisoned under the ocean.

Annabeth, still unconcious from the battle two days ago.

Our leaders, our strongest fighters. Our backbone.

Since finding Calypso, we had two days to recover before regrouping and setting out again. Everyone had fully healed with the help of the remaining moonlace, even Hazel's broken leg. Except for Annabeth. I had tried despratley charmspeaking her subconcious into waking up, but it had done no good. No amount of moonlace would help either.

We needed a doctor, and badly, but we all knew when Annabeth woke, she would be furious at us for delaying the quest for her. If she woke up.

I kept this thought to myself, but being the daughter of Aphrodite, I could almost feel what her pain would be like if she awoke, the heartbreak of losing Percy a final time. It was almost better for her if she never had to face that. It would kill her, if the monster did not already.

There was a bright side to this, however.

Looking over at Leo's face, happy for the first time in months, I couldn't help but feel a little warmer inside. The way he clung to her hand, I could tell he had no intent of ever letting it go again.

And Calypso, although I never knew her, deserves her new happiness too. I could hardly imagine the heartbreak she had gone through, time after time, seeing heroes come and go. I was happy for both of them, and it also made me feel a little contempt for the gods. They had taken an oath to free her, yet my mom, Hephestaus, and Hermes were the only ones who cared the slightest about her. The other gods, they simply forgot about her, as if she were a tiny bump in the road, not an actual human (well half, anyways).

Leo cleared his throat, bringing us all to attention. We had the original prophecy engraved on a plaque resting on the wall, and we all turned to look at it.

"We are up to here," he said, pointing at the fifth line, and,

Joining forces with a recent friend,

"That was Reyna." He said

They head to Gaia's domain

A long the way, an ancient wrong done right,

A Titans daughter freed from chains,

He smiled at Calypso, but then quickly continued.

"So, theres good news and bad news, I guess. We're doing what we need to do, and Im pretty sure were on the right track. Bad news, we lose someone between now, and when we reach Gaia, wherever that is."

Nine head east, traveling by night,

Only eight remain.

"And the part about traveling by night, that either means we just sail when its dark out, or..."

We all looked at Nico, and he shrugged.

"Ive gotten a lot better at shadow travel now, I guess. If I could transport the Parthenon, Coach Hedge, Myself, and Reyna," he said, blushing slightly. Hmm... "I can probably move this ship, if I can rest in between."

Calypso spoke up, slightly hesitant,

"And.. The part about Gaia's domain, her base in the last war was Mount Pelion, the largest mountain in original Greece other then Mount Olympus itself." She flushed, but Leo urged her on. "When Gaea was poisoning me, she appeared to me in the sand.. multiple times to convince me to join her. I refused of course, and I guess she assumed that if I didn't join her I would die, so she taunted me with my participation in the last war, saying things like, 'well, if you change your mind, same place as last time? I'm sure you can remeber!'.."

We looked at her in silence.

"Her domain is probably Mount Pelion." She said.

"So we head there." Jason finalized.

We nodded, satisfied with our newly added plan. We all got up, preparing to leave, feeling momentarily good and accomplished about having something to do. That is, until we saw the beaten and bruised form standing in the doorway.

"Where's Percy?" She demanded, looking over each and every one of us.

Her eyes widened, seeing the guilty and sullen looks on all our faces, realizing no one could bear telling her what had happened to him.

"Where. Is. Percy?!?"