tartarus and back ⇩

33. pretty much useless

Piper glared at Leo. "I thought you were getting rid of that stupid hologram."

"Hey, Buford's just saying good morning. He loves his hologram! Besides, we all miss the coach. And Frank makes a cute bulldog."

Frank morphed back into a burly, grumpy Chinese Canadian dude. "Just sit down, Leo. We've got stuff to talk about."

Leo squeezed in between Jason and Hazel.

"So ..." Jason winced as he leaned forward. "We're going to stay airborne and drop anchor as close as we can to Olympia. It's further inland than I'd like – about five miles – but we don't have much choice. According to Juno, we have to find the goddess of victory and, um ... subdue her."

Uncomfortable silence around the table.

Percy sipped his syrup-flavoured orange juice. He seemed to find it okay. "I'm cool with fighting the occasional goddess, but isn't Nike one of the good ones? I mean, personally, I like victory. I can't get enough of it."

I shivered. "I don't understand how you guys fight so many gods. Ahklys was enough for me."

Annabeth drummed her fingers on the table. "It does seem strange. I understand why Nike would be in Olympia – home of the Olympics and all that. The contestants sacrificed to her. Greeks and Romans worshipped her there for, like, twelve hundred years, right?"

"Almost to the end of the Roman Empire," Frank agreed. "Romans called her Victoria, but same difference. Everybody loved her. Who doesn't like to win? Not sure why we would have to subdue her."

Jason frowned. A wisp of steam curled from the wound under his shirt. "All I know ... the ghoul Antinous said, Victory runs rampant in Olympia. Juno warned us that we could never heal the rift between the Greeks and Romans unless we defeated victory."

"How do we defeat victory?" Piper wondered. "Sounds like one of those impossible riddles."

"Like making stones fly," Leo said, "or eating only one Fonzie." He popped a handful into his mouth.

Hazel wrinkled her nose. "That stuff is going to kill you."

"You kidding? So many preservatives in these things, I'll live forever. But, hey, about this victory goddess being popular and great – Don't you guys remember what her kids are like at Camp Half- Blood?"

The thought of Camp made me sad. I hadn't even gotten to see the new arrangements.

"He's got a point," Percy said. "Those kids in Cabin Seventeen – they're super-competitive. When it comes to capture the flag, they're almost worse than the Ares kids. Uh, no offence, Frank."

"Clarissa isn't bad." I pointed out.

Annabeth snorted. "Says you. I don't even know how you guys became friends."

I shrugged.

"You're saying Nike has a dark side?" Frank said.

"Her kids sure do," Annabeth said. "They never turn down a challenge. They have to be number one at everything. If their mom is that intense ..."

"Whoa." Piper put her hands on the table like the ship was rocking. "Guys, all the gods are split between their Greek and Roman aspects, right? If Nike's that way and she's the goddess of victory –"

"She'd be really conflicted," Annabeth said. "She'd want one side or the other to win so she could declare a victor. She'd literally be fighting with herself."

Hazel nudged her cereal bowl across the map of Greece. "But we don't want one side or the other to win. We've got to get the Greeks and Romans on the same team."