Death's Reason

Chapter 34

The group decided to eat on the hillside as they spoke. Neeks sat between Percy and Annabeth in the circle, not eating but sipping at a canteen of unicorn draught.

"So, the twenty-million-peso question," Leo said. "We got this slightly used forty-foot-tall statue of Athena. What do we do with it?"

Reyna squinted at the Athena Parthenos. "As fine as it looks on this hill, I didn't come all this way to admire it. According to Annabeth, it must be returned to Camp Half-Blood by a Roman leader. Do I understand correctly?"

Annabeth nodded. "I had a dream down in ... you know, Tartarus. I was on Half-Blood Hill, and Athena's voice said, I must stand here. The Roman must bring me."

Neeks noticed for the first time that she didn't call Athena 'mom'. Were xthey the only one that thought of xtheir godly parent as xtheir real parent?

"It makes sense," xthey said. "The statue is a powerful symbol. A Roman returning it to the Greeks ... that could heal the historic rift, maybe even heal the gods of their split personalities."

"Maybe?" Frank asked.

"Genocide began before we could see if it really worked."

"I'm sorry?" Reyna asked.

Percy scratched the back of his head. "Long story. Neeks here is from the future."

(something about Reyna not questioning the name Neeks sat well in xtheir stomach)

"Right," Reyna accepted. Her eyes bore into Neeks'. "And I take it we lost?"

Neeks nodded.

Coach Hedge swallowed his strawberry along with half the screwdriver. "Now, hold on. I like peace as much as the next satyr –"

"You hate peace," Leo said.

"The point is, Valdez, we're only – what, a few days from Athens? We've got an army of giants waiting for us there. We went to all the trouble of saving this statue –"

"Annabeth went through most of the trouble," Neeks corrected.

"– because that prophecy called it the giants' bane," the coach continued. "So why aren't we taking it to Athens with us? It's obviously our secret weapon." He eyed the Athena Parthenos. "It looks like a ballistic missile to me. Maybe if Valdez strapped some engines to it –"

Piper cleared her throat. "Uh, great idea, Coach, but a lot of us have had dreams and visions of Gaia rising at Camp Half-Blood ..."

(Neeks could hear her name and not flashback to those times)

"Since we got back to the ship," Piper said, "I've been seeing some bad stuff in the knife. The Roman legion is almost within striking distance of Camp Half-Blood. They're gathering reinforcements: spirits, eagles, wolves."

"Octavian," Reyna growled. "I told him to wait."

"When we take over command," Frank suggested, "our first order of business should be to load Octavian into the nearest catapult and fire him as far away as possible."

Neeks' blood ran cold at the mention of when he fucked up.

"Agreed," Reyna said. "But for now –"

"He's intent on war," Annabeth put in. "He'll have it, unless we stop him."

Piper turned the blade of her knife. "Unfortunately, that's not the worst of it. I saw images of a possible future – the camp in flames, Roman and Greek demigods lying dead. And Gaia ..." Her voice failed her.