Cabin 13

26| Blowing Up the Van

''Erebus?! '' Hazel choked.

Piper gave her confused, she didn't recall any Greek stories on Erebus, but she did remember he was one of the five gods that came from Chaos: Darkness (Erebus), Night (Nyx), Love (Eros), Earth (Gaea), and The Pit (Tartarus). 

Why would Hazel and Nico be so weary of him? She thought, what exactly am I missing here?

Hazel swiped her hand through the Iris Call, instantly ending their connection then followed after Nico back to the van.

Piper grabbed her arm, "Hazel, do you and Nico know something I don't?"

Hazel turned, shaking her head, looking frightened, "No one knows anything about Erebus, everyone thought he went to sleep with Gaea, or at least that's what we'd hoped. But Pluto always had his doubts."

"You mean Erebus doesn't live in the Underworld?"

Hazel again shook her head, "Some say he has his own realm, worse than the Underworld," she said, then muttered something else to herself quietly.

"What?"

Hazel's eyes flashed with terror, "Worse than Tartarus," she squeaked.

Piper froze. Hazel's words echoed in her head, "Worse. Than. Tartarus."

Piper and Hazel, who were trapped in the terror of the moment, jolted as l a bolt of blue lightning struck down from the sky and crashed into the van. The two girls looked around in bewilderment.

 "What just happened?'' Piper frowned.

Hazel gasped as water, that had previously been in plastic bottles, exploded from her backpack and rushed in a thick stream straight to the van. 

Leo, Nico, and Will scrambled out from the van wet and covered in soot.

Leo's flashed his crazy smile, "Jackson's awake," he yelled as they ran towards them, "and he found his sword!"

Everyone looked back to the van, hearing furious shouts from both boys. Another bolt of lightning came from the sky this time cracking open the vehicle, everyone hit the ground as car parts went flying. Then suddenly the car wash behind them erupted, water spouting from every nook and cranny.

Piper screamed, "Take cover!" pointing to the cement wall on the other side of the, now totaled, car wash. Everyone ran to the wall covering their heads with their hands.

Now, safe-ish behind the cement Piper screeched at the boys, "What happened?!"

Leo shrugged, "I told you, Jackson woke up and wasn't thrilled with Jason. He threw a punch and broke Jason's glasses, so then Jason really  got mad and started summoning lightning, Jackson found his sword and Jason took out his gladius... and things just escalated from there," he said gesturing to the two boys fighting to the death in the parking lot.

"We have to stop them!" Hazel said, looking frantic, "They're going to tear each other apart!"

Piper remembered when she was in Kansas with Percy and Jason and they'd been possessed and started fighting, but this was scarier, now they were doing it of their own free will. 

Piper huffed, "I'm going to try charmspeak, stay here," she said hopping over the wall and running towards the boys screaming as loud as she could, trying to be heard over the lightning, whipping water, and swords clashing.

"Put your swords down! Stop fighting!" she yelled, neither of them hearing her. 

She stalked closer covering her head as pieces of the car wash and the van went flying. Now close, Piper felt the tension, it was so tight you could almost touch it.

Piper was scared to try again, she knew her charmspeak worked on Jason, but Percy? It hadn't been working on Percy since she'd erased Annabeth with charmspeak. 

She was terrified she'd make Jason drop his sword while Percy would only go in for the final blow. But she knew she had to at least try and make them stop before some mortal called the police, though the area was luckily pretty deserted.

Putting all her power in her voice she screamed, "Drop your swords!"