Nina's Destiny

Sisterly Bonding and Happy Dragons

Vati's POV

The next day, Piper and I woke up at dawn. My half sister smiled nervously at me. "Are you scared?" I asked. I wasn't trying to intimidate her, I just wanted to be their for my younger sister. I could tell I would actually get along with this one.

Piper took a deep breath. "I"m scared," she admitted. "I've never done something like this."

"I would be a little worried if you had," I joked, trying to lighten the mood. It seemed to work. "Do you think Leo will find a way for us to fly since we can't go over the Earth?"

I blushed slightly. The Latino demigod had haunted my dreams the previous night. "For some odd reason, I feel like we should trust him," I said. Piper chuckled and nodded her head.

"Vati, wait up!" I heard someone call from behind me. I turned to see Lavender running up to us. I sent an apologetic look at Piper. She waved it off and kept walking. "I didn't think I'd catch you," Lavender panted. "I just wanted to say I'm really proud of you. I didn't want to do this because of the search for Percy, but you stepped up. That's really brave, Vati. I guess what I'm trying to say is please don't die. I love you and I don't know how I could live without my favorite sister."

"Don't tell Padma," I grinned," but you're my favorite sister too." Lavender smiled back and wrapped her arms around me. I pulled her close and buried my face in her neck. "I didn't want to tell Piper, but I'm really scared, Lav.I've never done something like this without you and Nina."

Lavender took my face in her hands. She made me look at her. "WHo are you?" she asked.

"Parvati Patil?" I said more like a question.

"Try again," Lav prompted.

"Parvati Patil, daughter of Aphrodite?"

"No," Lavender sighed. "You are Vati, slayer of the basilisk and my sister. You can do this. Now, tell me who you are!"

"I am Vati, slayer of the basilisk and sister of Lav."

"That's my girl," grinned Lav. "Now go kill some monsters for me." I nodded and took my sisters hand. We walked over to where everyone was crowding. A giant bronze dragon stood proudly in front of us.

"The bronze dragon," I gasped. It had disappeared when Beckendorf went off to college.

"Well you coming or not?" Leo asked. He was covered in grease which made his hair stick up. I still thought he looked cute. "All aboard Festus!"

"Erm...Leo," Jason said from his seat behind Leo, "Festus means 'Happy' in Latin."

"You want us to ride to save the world on Happy the Dragon?" I asked. Leo nodded eagerly. I shrugged and climbed up between him and jason. Piper climbed up behind me and in front of Jason. I wrapped my arms around Leo as we soared up into the air.

When I woke up, we were in Quebec. Time to go visit the god of the north, or Santa, as Freya insisted on calling him. We were flying towards the ice hotel. We were going to land on the roof when two angel people landed in front of us. "Who are they?" Piper whispered in my ear.

The angel sons of Boreas," I whispered back. The sons of Boreas began talking. They argued with Jason and Leo. They scrawny one flirted with Piper. The thick one, who seemed to like hockey, kept talking about smashing Leo. In the end, we came to an agreement. I would stay with Leo and Calais on the first floor, and Jason and Piper would go talk to Boreas with Zephes and the goddess of snow, Khione. I really didn't like her. She was a lot like Drew with an evil aura.

"Wou want pizza?" Cal asked when his sister and brother had left with our friends.

"Sure," Leo grinned crazily. I rolled my eyes, but shrugged my shoulders. Call grinned and ran into the room next to us. He returned with two boxes of cheese pizza and a remote. He flopped down on the couch, which was made of ice. Calais turned on a hockey game and gestured for us to sit next to him.

I sat down, but it was freezing. Leo sat next to me. I curled up into his side. He was so warm! I didn't wonder why he was so warm in such a cold place though. Leo handed me a slice of pizza before grabbing one for himself.

I jumped when Jason and Piper came down the stairs. I noticed Leo's eyes following Khione. For some reason, I felt jealousy flare through my body. We all jumped on Festus and flew away from the ice hotel. I wonder what they were talking about with Boreas.

The next time I woke up, we were falling from the sky. I screamed and clung to Leo. In hindsight, I realized that wouldn't do anything, but it was still comforting. I groaned when Jason and Piper slammed into us. Jason, being a son of Zeus, was able to slow down our fall slightly. It still hurt when we crashed through the ceiling. I heard the crack of my sister's ankle breaking. Jason set it while Leo and I went out to search for Festus.

Of all the places Festus could have landed, it had to be the porta potties. The dragon's hide was steaming hot, but that didn't seem to bother Leo. I remembered something Beckendorf had told me when I first came to Camp. It was somthing about some sons of Hephaestus being fire mages and how they were really dangerous. I gasped. Leo was a fire mage.

Leo opened the control panel on Festus' head and cursed in Spanish. I suddenly wished I could speak Spanish like Nina. I spoke French, English, and Greek. Leo said, "The wiring in the control panel froze over."

"Are you a fire mage or not, Leo," I retorted. "Make some fire and unfreeze it!" Leo blushed and his hair started smoking.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"The fact that you're touching a 1,000° metal dragon."

Leo's blush worsened, but he did as I said. "Please don't tell anyone."

"I won't," I promised. Leo jumped off of Festus' back. He froze and stared into the sludge that had come out of the porta potties. "Erm...Leo?" I asked. He didn't seem to notice me.

"You killed my mom!" Leo yelled.

"No I didn't," I whimpered. "I never met your mom, Leo." Leo didn't seem to hear me. He kept staring at that one spot in the ground.

Leo grabbed a toilet seat and threw it into the sludge. "Leave me alone!" he growled. Leo grabbed a hammer from his magic tool belt. "Come one, Vati," he urged. "Jason and Piper need our help." I nodded and followed him back to the warehouse.

When we got there, I saw two people hanging from the ceiling. I looked closer and noticed they were Piper and Jason. Jason wasn't moving, but Piper was squirming. There were two cyclopes underneath them. One was lighting a fire. The other was supervising him. I saw one cyclops leave the warehouse. Leo worked furiously on something. He was making what looked like a universal remote. Leo finished his remote and started wiring it to the machines. I had seen Beckendorf do this enough times.

One of the cyclops seemed to have heard us. He rose and lumbered toward us. Leo hit a button on his remote. The robot arm on one of the machines Leo had wired came down on the cyclops. Violently, it threw him up in the air. The cyclops didn't come back down again, just dust. The third cyclops came back into the warehouse. "Ma, I got the extra-spicy-"

He never got to finish the sentence. Leo's second machine came crashing down on him, blasting him into dust. "You busted my boys!" yelled the third cyclops. She stood up and started towards us. "Only I get to bust my boys!" She ripped the arms off the robots. I didn't know what Leo was going to do now. "Any more tricks, demigod?" the cyclops sneered.

"I'm going to destroy you with fire," Leo said, looking up. I followed his gaze to see an engine block hanging by a thin chain over the cyclops. Leo sent a white hot bolt of fire at the chain. The cyclops looked up in time to see the engine block fall. She was smashed into dust.