Broken || A Riordan Universe Story

Piper POV~ "Nico! You Can't Just Ask People If They're Dead."

     Hazel hugged me, "I'm so happy to see you!"

     "The feeling is mutual." I smiled, as we pulled away.

     I was glad to see some more familiar faces, but in the crowd there was no Jason. Even though he isn't in his "right mind" (according to Nico) I'd love to see his face right now. I was happy to be back in reality, but I knew that my mind wasn't fully back. I didn't tell anyone yet, I mean who would believe me if I said that I saw real water cannibals lurking around the shore. Those were just fictions that Grandpa Tom made up. Right? I wasn't confident, something was messing with my mind and I couldn't do anything about it. Gods of Olympus.

     "So, we have a lot of catching up to do." Stated Percy after everyone was settled down on the sand. "Who wants to go first?"

     "I guess I'll start." Said Leo. "For those of you who don't know yet, I'm not dead."

     "And he says this after everyone mourned his ass." I grumbled.

     "Yeah, sorry about that." He replied sheepishly.

     "You couldn't have given us a heads up, like 'hey I'm alive don't worry about me I'll be back?'" Hazel crossed her arms.

     "Is it 'let's make Leo feel bad' day? or something?" Leo stated.

     "No it's 'try to resist the urge to punch Leo for his debatable life decisions' day." Frank explained.

     "Okay, I get we're all mad at Leo, but let's hear his story first without interruptions. Hopefully." Stated Annabeth.

     Percy started to cough violently, "COUGH, PIPER! COUGH, COUGH."

     "Real mature Percy." I said.

     "Anyway, I traveled on Festus to Ogyia in search of Calypso." He looked at Calypso lovingly who was laying on his chest while sitting in his lap. "Festus is my bronze dragon, in case any of you didn't know yet, and he gave me the Physician's cure so that I was, you know, less dead. When I arrived at the island the phrase 'Let The Games Begin' was written in smoke that wafted from a burning Ogyia."

     "No." Calypso gasped, with a far-off look in her eyes. "I never thought I'd be saddened to hear that my eternal prison was wiped from existence in flames."

     "It's alright." Leo comforted her the best he could. Guys usually didn't have a knack for dealing with sad girls. He was still looking at Calypso when he started to tell his story again. "I flew back to Camp Half-Blood as fast as I could, to find that all the girls of the seven along with Reyna from Camp Jupiter were kidnapped by monsters."

     "Just to clarify," Alex started. "Camp Half-Blood is the one for the Greeks and Camp Jupiter is the one for Romans right?"

     "Yup." Said Percy.

     "Cool, and all of the people there are alive right?" Asked Alex.

     "Of course they are, if they were dead they'd be in the Underworld." Answered Nico. "Wait a minute are you dead?"

     "Nico! You can't just ask people if they're dead." I stated.

     "No harm done." Smiled Alex. "Both Magnus and me are dead, but we live on in Hotel Valhalla as eternal warriors for the Norse gods when Ragnarok comes. They call us Einherji."

     "Fun." I said. "Isn't Ragnarok the end of the world?"

     "It's a little more complicated then that, but you summed it up pretty well." Laughed Sam.

     "That's scary." Stated Percy, "and that's coming from yours truly."

     "Is there a knob that I can use to turn down your ego?" Alex asked, "I can't hear myself think."

     "Haha, very funny." Percy pouted, as most of us started laughing.

     "She has a point you know." Annabeth laughed.

     "Let's get the conversation back on track now." Percy crossed his arms.

     "You're right. So anyway, Chiron called a meeting in the Big House where Carter, Walt, Magnus, Blitzen, and Hearth joined us with impeccable timing that even made one of us here fall out of our chair." Leo's eyes drifted over to Percy.

     I bursted with laughter.

     "You're such a Seaweed Brian." Annabeth facepalmed.

     "Leo, the little details don't matter." Percy said.

     "But they sure do make life more interesting." He grinned. "After that an Amazon box was delivered to the Big House. When we opened it an Archimedes Sphere sat inside of it. And it broadcasted all of you girls trapped in chains."

     "I sure do remember that." Hazel shivered, as Frank put an arm around her shoulder to provide warmth.

     "If you don't mind me asking, what went on in there?" Questioned Leo.

     "We saw things." Reyna started, as remembered the nightmares.

     "Our worst fears and nightmares were brought to life." Added Zia.

     "It was on a constant loop and we couldn't do anything to stop it." I looked at my feet.

     "They put something in our eyes that created all of the dreams." Said Annabeth, putting her head in her hands. Percy rubbed her back.

     "But now you're fine right?" Asked Walt with concern.

     Annabeth and I made eye-contact. I could tell that she was hiding the truth too. So I decided to speak up for the benefit of us all.

     "No. And I don't think that I'm the only one still hallucinating here." I looked around at the rest of the girls, and saw something familiar in all their eyes.

     Brokenness.

     They really broke us this time. The thing is that, we were all so good at hiding it.