SANITY; heroes of olympus

04.9

"Yay," Annabeth muttered from where she stood, her arms crossed over her chest.

The daughter of Athena had been just as quiet as she was since her fight against Arachne and Andy falling into Tartarus. Even though they had talked and had plenty of conversations since, she knew that Annabeth was still keeping things to herself—why, Zara wasn't completely sure. It couldn't be because she felt like there was no one on the ship to trust, because Percy was there, and she trusted Percy with practically everything, so it had to be something else.

She met Zara's eyes and forced a smile.

"Guys," Piper said suddenly, "I've been thinking about the Prophecy of Nine."

It took a lot to get Leo's attention away from his work, but that did the trick.

"What about it?" he asked. "Like...good stuff, I hope?"

Piper readjusted her cornucopia's shoulder strap. "In Katoptris," she started, "I keep seeing that giant Clytius—the guy who's wrapped in shadows. I know his weakness is fire, but in my visions, he snuffs out flames wherever he goes. Any kind of light just gets sucked into his cloud of darkness."

"Sounds like Nico," Leo said. "You think they're related?"

Donnie frowned at him. "Not cool, Val."

Jason scowled. "Hey, man, cut Nico some slack. So, Piper, what about this giant? What are you thinking?"

"I keep thinking about fire," Piper said. "How we expect Leo to beat this giant because he's..."

"Hot?" Leo suggested with a grin.

"Um, let's go with flammable. Anyway, that line from the prophecy bothers me: To storm or fire the world must fall."

"Yeah, we know all about it," Leo promised. "You're gonna say I'm fire. And Jason here is storm."

Piper nodded reluctantly.

Zara looked down at her hands and then back up, only to notice that Donnie was looking between her, Percy, and Annabeth, his skin pale all of a sudden. It was like he had just realised something terrible...

"Storm." She said accidentally.

"Yeah, that's what the prophecy says." Piper nodded, looking deep in thought, not understanding right away.

Eden cleared her throat and looked between everyone who was there. "You mean like the last name."

Zara nodded.

Donnie blew out a deep breath, pushing some of his curls behind his ears. "Well, let's be real, if someone with the last name Storm is going to do...whatever the prophecy thinks, who do we think it's more likely to be? Me or my sister?"

The ship pitched to starboard. Jason grabbed the icy railing. "So you're worried one of us will endanger the quest, maybe accidentally destroy the world?"

"No," Piper said. "I think we've been reading that line the wrong way. The world...the Earth. In Greek, the word for that would be..."

She hesitated, not wanting to say the name aloud, even at sea.

"Gaea." Annabeth's eyes gleamed with sudden interest. "You mean, to storm or fire Gaea must fall?"

"Oh..." Leo grinned even wider. "You know, I like your version a lot better. 'Cause if Gaea falls to me, Mr. Fire, that is absolutely copacetic."

"Or to me...storm." Jason grimaced. "Or Storm, Andy or Donnie." Then a smile split onto his face. "Piper, that's brilliant! If you're right, this is great news. We just have to figure out which of us destroys Gaea."