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"So this is where we are/ It's not where we had wanted to be
If half the worlds gone mad/ The other half just don't care you see"
- World Gone Mad (Bastille)
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MYTHOMAGIC BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER
SHE SHOOK HER HEAD out of her thoughts and stood up, brushing the dirt off of her pants and headed over to the conversation that the others were having around the campfire in hopes it would keep her thoughts of him away.
Arya sat down next to Percy who shot her a look asking her if she was okay, but she pretended not to see it. The group was having a conversation about how Bianca turned one of the skeleton warriors into dust. Bianca had no clue how she had done it, and no one else had any ideas either. Arya made a mental note to revisit the topic later with Annabeth.
Zoe was the one who started suggesting how they should go about continuing their journey. Arya brought back up her plan from earlier to just follow the road to the next major city since there was still plenty of time before the winter solstice.
"I agree. I believe the next major city would be Las Vegas."
In synch Percy, Biance, and Groover tensed at the mention of a city. All having the same worry and stressed out look in their eyes
"No!" Bianca said. "Not there!"
"Why?" Zoe asked, confused.
"I... I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember..."
Arya had a sinking feeling in her gut, as she remembered Nico mentioning how he couldn't remember if their mom had died, and how Bianca could remember the subway being built. This was leading to something really bad.
"Bianca," Percy said. "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"
Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"
"This is not good." Arya said shaking her hands and burying them in her hands.
"Wait," Thalia said. "What is the Lotus Casino?"
"A couple of years ago," Percy said, "Grover, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."
"I was stuck at camp, worried sick about them. I thought they had died." Arya remembered, shivering at the dark place she was in that summer.
"No," Bianca said. "No, that's not possible."
"You said somebody came and got you out," Percy pressed.
"Yes."
"What did he look like? What did he say?"
"I... I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."
"I know you don't. I wouldn't either. But it's very important you do." Arya attempted to comfort the girl.
"You said that Washington, D.C., had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."
"Yes, but—"
"Bianca," Zoe said, "can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right Now?"
"Don't be silly," Bianca said, giving the correct name
"And who was the president before that?" Arya asked.
"Roosevelt." Bianca said confidently after a minute of thought.
"Theodore or Franklin'?" Zoe asked slowly.
"As if either answer makes it any better." Arya added in. She wanted to get her thoughts off Luke, but this was a much bigger issue.
"Franklin," Bianca said. "F.D.R."
"Like FDR Drive?" Percy asked, followed by a roll of Arya's eyes and a nudge in the ribs
"Bianca," Zoe said. "F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years Ago."
"That's impossible," Bianca said. "I... I'm not that old."
"It's okay, Bianca, The important thing is you and Nico are safe. You made it out." Thalia said with sad eyes, understanding how it felt to be in the wrong time, even if they did come from two different situations.
Arya shook her head in disbelief again. Something seemed off about the whole thing. Arya couldn't help but think that they didn't just escape. That someone decided to keep them in there and pull them out when necessary. But who would do that? Arya didn't want to put gasoline on an already out of control fire, so she kept her thoughts to herself until she had more proof.
Again, Arya wished Annabeth was here. The blonde would have some of the answers that they needed for this to be a productive conversation but instead the others were left talking in circles. The conversation probably would have lasted all night, that is, until a pair of blinding headlights came barreling down the road, and a white limo pulled up directly beside the camp.
Ares stepped out of the Limo, point of the sword pointed right at Percy's neck. Everyone summoned their weapons and Arya could feel the growl leave her throat as the god she assumed to be Ares stepped out of the car. After a tension filled conversation in which everyone's tempers were running high, Ares told Percy to get in the car and the others to go get tacos at the Taco place. Everyone else reluctantly went, but Arya held her ground.
"Like Tartarus I'm leaving him with you." She spat.
"You'd think with that temper of yours, that you'd be my daughter rather than that sea dweller."
"You wish I was your daughter." She scoffed. But Ares just dryly laughed.
"Nah, too much trouble." Then snapped his fingers, Arya found herself standing in front of the others who were looking for Tacos to eat.
"Aphrodite." She grumbled to herself as she sat down at one of the tables. Going onto her internal dialogue about her hatred of the gods.
_____
While his friends ate tacos, Percy spent his entire audience with the Goddess of love, confused, and at a loss for words. He wasn't sure if it was because what she was saying was so vague, or because she was so gorgeous.
"Didn't they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?" Percy asked when Aphrodaite brought up Paris and Helen's love story.
"Pft. That's not the point, follow your heart."
"But... I don't know where it's going. My heart, I mean." Percy said nervously.
"Not knowing is half the fun," Aphrodite said. "Exquisitely painful, isn't it? Not being sure who you love and who loves you? Oh, you kids! It's so cute I'm going to cry."
"No, no," Percy said. "Don't do that."
"Knowing is when things start to get tragic isn't it? Your sister would know that. She was the last one to leave out there yes?"
"Uh... " Percy tried not knowing what the Goddess was talking about.
"Just think, if your sister didn't love that boy her decision would be so much easier, wouldn't you say? Oh it was a shame. I was rooting for them so hard, I thought maybe the true love's kiss would turn things around, now I fear there's not much hope left for them."
"Wait what? Arya loved him?"
"It was painfully obvious dear, oh I guess you were a little young." She said as she flippantly waved her hand. "But we were not here to talk about her. We're here to talk about you! And don't worry, I'm not going to let this be easy and boring for you. No, I have some wonderful surprises in store. Anguish. Indecision. Oh, you just wait."
"That's really okay," Percy told her. "Don't go to any trouble."
"You're so cute. I wish all my daughters could break the heart of a boy as nice as you."
Aphrodite's eyes were tearing up. "Now, you'd better go. And do be careful in my husband's territory, Percy. Don't take anything. He is awfully fussy about his trinkets and trash."
"What?" Percy asked. "You mean Hephaestus?"
But no answer was to be had as Ares opened the door and pulled Percy out.
_____
Throughout the entirety of the Junkyard, Arya was reminded of Aladdin, which she saw for the first time only last month. If the junkyard was actually a junkyard it would have been easy to ignore everything and keep walking forward. No deaths necessary.
However, things the gods saw as junk, compared to everyone else, was a vast difference, and it became really hard not to look at things. Even
Arya was guilty of picking up a pair of elemental proof boots that would be nice to have, and a armor set that was indestructable to magic.
Considering they had to climb over piles of junk, and no step was the same for any one person. Everyone fell into line with everyone else struggling on different hills. At one point Arya thought Bianca was struggling, so the daughter of Poseidon made her way over to the girl to try and give some help. But, as Arya got closer to her, she became more aware that Bianca wasn't struggling, but instead pausing to look at something.
"Whatcha looking at?" Arya asked, and Bianca jumped at the sound of the voice so close. She didn't need to answer the question though once Arya got close enough she saw the newest hunter look at a collection of Mythomagic creatures. No doubt thinking about her brother.
"Does he have all of them?" Arya hummed, as she examined the small figurines, taking notice to the small changes that had been made since she received the game.
"No, he's only missing a few though."
"You know, I had a whole collection once, it's probably up in the attic somewhere, when we get back I'll let him take a look to see if I can complete his collection."
Bianca looked at her with a sad smile, as she rubbed one of her thumbs over whichever figurine she was holding. "You played Mythomagic?"
Arya nodded her head, "For a while, I had everyone at camp playing."
"That's very nice of you to offer him your set."
"It's not a problem, it hasn't been used in years. I would just be glad to see it's getting put to good use." Arya said as she pulled herself upwards to see the others were two piles ahead of them by now. Thalia was calling them to catch up, and while Arya was responding, she completely missed Bianca sliding the figurine she was holding into her pocket.
The two girls continued to climb slowly but surely through the piles, Arya almost positive that their conversation was done, that was until Bianca decided to speak up.
"I didn't want to leave him."
"What?"
"Zoe told me before we left that you wouldn't be understanding of my decision to become a Hunter, and I realize it's because I left Nico that you were angry." Bianca said as she got her footing and pulled herself up to Arya's level on the pile. "When I was offered a place in the Hunters, I was going to decline, because I couldn't leave Nico on his own."
"Then why did you?" Arya accused her as she continued over the top of the pile, and then slid down to the next one.
"Because I saw the smile of comfort he had with you when coming back from the woods when you first met, and how you sang him to sleep. I knew then that if I left Nico, he wouldn't feel alone, that he would be cared for. Because when we dropped him off at camp. He would have you and others like you." Bianca called, making Arya stop in her footsteps. "I wouldn't have left him if Artemis hadn't assured me that he would be safe with you, if he hadn't already taken a liking to you."
Arya took a minute to think about Bianca's confession, while Arya still didn't understand the decision to ditch her family completely, the picture became a lot more clear in her head as to why Bianca did what she did. It made Arya think that if she had grown up with Percy rather than gotten him so late in life, she would feel less compelled to stay with him. She wasn't sure though, how could anyone be?
"Can you promise me that you'll look after him? Be there for him as a friend and a sister? Protect him? I just need to know he won't be alone when I leave" Bianca asked. A sense of sorrow and innocence in her voice. Not quite regret, but it was easy to tell that the decision was weighing on her.
Arya turned to the girl, for the first time. "I promise With my life. As long as he's at Camp, I will make sure he doesn't feel alone, ever."
Then, without warning, Arya felt two arms wrap around her, and a head press into her chest. "I will be able to sleep much better now, thank you."
Before Arya got the chance to hug back. Bianca pulled away and cleared her throat in embarrassment, both girls looking around to make sure no one saw. Before turning and continuing to climb to catch up to the others.
Percy called to Arya and Bianca that they were going around the giant metal toes that looked like they were sticking out of the ground in order to be safe. Neither girl complained.
After only a few more minutes of junkyard climbing, everyone had made it out safe and Arya was about to let out a big sigh of relief that they hadn't run into too much trouble, but before she could, a loud sound of metal crushing and scraping metal sounded so loudly that the party covered their ears and doubled over.
"Talos!" Zoe and Arya gasped at the same time as a large sky-scraper sized greek warrior in full battle armour stood up, only visible in dark moonlight.
"Who—who's Talos?" Percy stuttered.
"One of Hephaestus's creations," Thalia answered. "But that can't be the original. It's too small. A prototype, maybe. A defective model."
Talos defensively took out his sword which made a sound so loud Arya thought her ears were going to bleed.
"Someone took something," Zoe said. "Who took something?"
She stared accusingly at Percy.
He shook his head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."
"As proven a year and a half ago." Arya defended. "Look, Maybe the crown Groover started to eat hasn't digested yet."
"Run!" Grover yelped.
But running only did so much because Talos was so large that his one step was there equivalent to sprinting for thirty seconds. Thalia and Arya ended up behind an old junk car on the side of the road that looked like it had been stripped for parts. Talos swung his sword and the power lines above them came crashing down. Thalia pulled her friend in close and held her shield up to block any attacks or sparks from hitting them.
"Why is it that Hephestus' creations are always made to kill?"
"He's got a lot of pent up anger at his family, especially his wife, where else is he going to put it, if not into building revenge-seeking destructive monsters."
"I hate your stupid remarks." Thalia growled as she peaked her head over the car to see what they were working with.
"They keep you entertained. Don't lie" Arya responded, as she summoned her spear into her hands.
Arya then poked her head up too, to see that Grover had wrapped some of the powerline around the thigh of Talos and it was shocking him up his back. Both Thalia and Arya attempted to get in close range and attack with their spears. But it wasn't doing much damage, they would need something more powerful if they even wanted to begin damaging the thing.
Talos kept arming for Grover, and thank Gods he was a satyr that could run and move faster than a human or else he would have winded up dead more than once. Thalia let out a yell to get out its attention, and zapped it with a bolt of lightning from her spear. This worked and caused the giant to crash to the ground, and also gave Arya a plan.
"Thalia! Between you and me we can electrocute this thing! How about a team up!?"
"Give me your plan first!" Thalia called back running closer to the girl so they wouldn't have to yell.
"I drench the streets with water, we then attack it's legs to cause them to buckle, then you zap the water with a blot. It should send a shock wave up it's entire body to weaken it."
Thalia debated, but only for a second before agreeing to the plan and the two girls went their separate ways.
Arya ran back to the abandoned car and climbed onto its hood and hit the small button on her arm band. She took out all of the water she had in there, which was always a shockingly larger amount than expected, and piled it onto the street, making a giant thick puddle for the giant to step in.
Arya ran to the opposite leg of Thalia and both girls turned to each other with a nod and took a running start, leaping as high as they could and piercing through the metal of the leg as high as the would reach and then letting their bodyweight pull down the spear all the way to the ankle. The Giant metal greek then fell back down to its knees and Thalia wasted no time in shooting her bolt into the giant puddle, causing a giant shockwave to travel up the giant and temporarily put him out of service. Arya didn't imagine it would last long.
It was a surprise to see Biance run up past her, heading straight for the monster's foot, where Arya noticed for the first time that there was a human service entrance.
"Bianca!" Arya called loudly, getting the girls attention. "You can't risk that!"
"We can shut it down from the inside! I have to do this, it's my fault!"
Arya didn't have time to ask what that meant, as the giant started to click and whirr, indicating that it was back up and running. Probably about to stand back up.
"Let me go then!" Arya called back.
"No! You made me a promise Arya! You have to keep it!"
Then in the blink of an eye, the newest hunter was inside the service tunnel, right as Talos adjusted his foot and stood it back on the ground to stand up with. Arya had a new job. Making sure Talous was no longer electrically shocked, She wanted to give Bianca every chance she could to make it out of the metal giant alive.
She was doing good, using whatever water she could salvage to block loose power lines from finding their way onto the giant. She came close a few times to getting hit herself but she was doing well to actively dodge.
At one point, Talos froze up, like if every muscle in a body had tightened, and then it started to make odd and sporadic movements, even hitting itself in the head a few times. Whatever Bianca was doing, was working, maybe there was hope for her after all.
"Go Bianca!" Percy called.
"Shes inside!" Zoe screamed, horrified as Arya had been.
"Where's Arya?" Thalia called. Then a pause. "Arya get out of there before you get trampled!"
But Arya chose to ignore the comments, she was going to fight as long as she could if it meant saving Bianca. Talos hit itself in the head again. This time dropping it's sword, Arya dodged out of the way, but the impact caused her to fall backwards.
Everything in the next moment happened all at once, and so fast Arya had time to process. Talos stumbled backwards from the impact, his foot heading directly towards the powerlines. Arya stood up as fast as she could and pulled as much water as she could into her hands and sent it forward to push the powerlines away. But she was unsuccessful, and went to try again before she felt herself being pulled backwards by a pressure around her waist.
As soon as she was pulled far enough away from the monster, she saw what would have happened if she had tried again to get the power lines out of the way.
She would have failed again seeing as the water had all but dried up, the electrical sparks went up the entire body of the giant, and it's entire arm fell off, landing directly where Arya had been standing, she would have been dead it Zoe Nightshade hadn't lassoed her, and pulled her away from it all.
Talos started running but didn't get very far before the entirety of him crumbled from the head downward into a pile of scrap metal, like so many other things in the junkyard. Arya felt her gut drop to the floor.
"What was that for!? I could have stopped it!" Arya yelled to Zoe as the party ran to the scrap pile, all with one mission in mind.
The group was frantic. All of them digging and digging, pulling apart every piece, and calling Bianca's name until their voices were horses. Leaving no piece left unturned, they searched through the wreckage until the sun started to peak it's way over the horizon, and everyone slowly stopped, backing away, coming to the conclusion that Bianca Di Angelo had given her life.
"No you couldn't have. Then you would have lost your life as well." Zoe answered Aryas question from earlier in a tone so grave you would have thought she was a ghost herself. Then, the Hunter dropped to her knees, put her head in her hands and started weeping. Thalia let out a yell of rage as she impaled her spear into what used to be a metal giant's helmet. Arya also let out a frustrated yell of rage as she kicked the pile of scraps until her foot felt broken.
"We can keep searching," Percy said desperately. "It's light now. We'll find her."
"No we won't," Grover said miserably with big watery eyes. "It happened just as it was supposed to."
"What are you talking about?" Percy asked.
Arya let down her hair, so that she had something to keep her hands occupied. She bit her lip and spoke up when Grover was too distraught to answer the question.
"It's just like the prophecy said Percy, one will be lost in the land without rain. I shouldn't have let her go."
"It should have been me." Both siblings said at the same time, both soft enough to only hear the other, but not acknowledge it as everyone was
lost within their own grief and emotions in the moment.
Arya refused to cry, she had promised herself that she was done crying for now. Instead, the daughter of Posiedon, got down on her knees, and put her hand on the scrap pile, did three things, the first, she took the helmet and one of her daggers and carved Bianca's name in it then shoved it into the sand to act as a resting place for the girl in hopes it would help her find piece. The next was to send a prayer to the gods to help her on her journey to the underworld, and hope for the underworld to treat her kindly. The third, was her bowing her head and whispering.
"Ill treat him like he's my own brother. I promise."