Blood of Olympus FanFic {completed}

56: PERCY

That's when Percy realized a giant eagle had caught him right before he fell into the lava. Frank! He always seemed to be there at all the right times, especially in life-threatening situations.

Percy let out a whoop. "Way to go, Zhang! You're  - " His sentence was cut short when Percy noticed Frank wasn't heading back to their friends or to the other side of the cavern. He was flying downwards, towards the fire.

Percy gripped Frank's feathery neck tighter, suddenly aware he might be chocking him if he tightened his grip too intensely. "Frank! Frank! What the Hades are you doing?" He didn't know if Frank couldn't hear him or if he was simply ignoring him, but Percy didn't know what was motivating his friend to want to be roasted alive.

Just before they were engulfed in the flames, Percy came to a sudden realization: Khione couldn't have been pulling him down from all the way down there; the fall was way too long, and she would've melted. She was powerful, but not powerful enough to even survive in the heat. Also, he thought Khione had died a few weeks ago. This only meant... Someone must've been impersonating the ice goddess.

All of these thoughts hit Percy with the same force traversing the flames did. Except, a second later, Frank the Eagle was landing smoothly on solid ground. Percy's first instinct was to look above him; they were back underground - well, even more underground. The domed cavern with the lava had disappeared. It was as if they had passed through a portal.

He wasn't on fire either, which Percy took as a good sign.

Percy hopped off of Frank's back, who immediately changed back to human form. Frank didn't look fazed at all. He must've seen the question marks in Percy's eyes, because he grinned proudly and said, "Hazel's Mist. That fire there? All a trick of the eyes. It was a diversion for the giants. They almost got to the mortals, so Hazel created this whole scene. They had enough time to escape, thank the gods. We're still rescuing demigods, though."

"Wow." Hazel's magic only seemed to keep getting stronger. "Does that mean Annabeth and Piper's dads didn't actually die in the lava?" Percy asked hopefully.

Frank's eyes widened in shock. "They did? I'm sorry, Percy, but I'm pretty sure Hazel didn't create the whole volcano. And even if they had fallen through the Mist, they wouldn't have survived the fall. We would've found them. That's why I was flying around. Gaea's been dragging people down."

Percy frowned. "Gaea? I thought I saw Khione!"

"Khione's dead," Frank said with a shrug. "Maybe Gaea's impersonating her or something."

Percy gasped. "Frank, that's it!"

Frank looked confused. "What's it?"

Percy started to pace. "Gaea's not at her maximum destruction power yet. She's only half awake because of the, uh, male sacrifice." Percy glanced at Frank to see if he was angry at him for basically lying to his friends and being half of the cause of the world ending, but he showed no different emotion. Relieved, Percy continued. "So maybe she has some new powers. Since she's, like, halfway there. Maybe she has enough power to impersonate monsters, like Khione! She probably figured the giant and monster army wouldn't be enough to hold us back, so having one of our worst enemies back would definitely shake us."

Frank nodded. "Sounds like something Gaea would do. Who knows how many other monsters she's become? And as far as we know, they're undefeatable. They're not real, so how do you destroy them?"

Percy thought about this. Frank was right; it was possible this was the reason they were losing. "I guess the only way to stop them would be to destroy their source."

"Queen Dirt Face herself," Frank said grimly. "Everything we do comes down to destroying Gaea."

"Isn't that why we're here?" Percy said dryly. "But hey, it's kinda thanks to Gaea I got to meet you," he added, giving Frank's shoulder a nudge. Frank smiled in return.