Piper had been having horrible nightmares.
She dreamt about a work camp; animals being held hostage against their wills and being forced to work. Nymphs which Piper thought looked drained, their skin papery white and their cheeks hollow, being made to carry heavy metals. Their feet were chained to one another, their thin, bony wrists bound. Harpies were made to use their blunt beaks to peck relentlessly at precious jewels; Piper thought she saw diamonds and rubies. Pegasus' were chained and used as ploughs, to gather crops. Harnasses cut into the pegasus' soft flesh and created bruises and rises.
Piper woke up groggily with the faded images lingering in her mind. As her eyes focused, she saw a figure standing by her door.
"Hey, Pipes," Jason began.
Piper realised she probably looked vile. Major bedhead, cherokee eagle pyjamas and bleary eyes didn not help her case.
"Hi." She squeaked, rising out of bed and stomping into the bathroom. She quickly mouthwashed, brushed her hair through and moisturised before joining Jason.
"Sit down with me...I need to tell you something." He said. Piper studied his face and thought he looked a little sickly.
She sat on the bed. "You okay?"
Jason sat next to her. "Last night...I woke up and Nico was in my room. It was weird; like he'd stumbled in there by mistake, he said he thought it was Hazel's cabin," He paused to draw in breath, "But this morning, in my water glass I saw something...shimmering."
"You think he spiked your glass?" Piper queeried.
"I don't know," Jason shrugged, "I don't want to get paranoid."
"Nico's a bit of a drifter, but i'm sure he's not dangerous." Piper assured him.
Jason nodded and began to leave. He turned and smiled. "Thanks, Pipes."
He closed the door, and the day began.
After Piper had got dressed and eaten breakfast, she consulted Leo who was driving the ship.
"Hey, Leo," She started.
Leo turned around and grinned at her, before setting his coffee cup down. He nudged a lever with his shoulder by mistake as he turned, and the ship violently lurched to one side.
"Whoops." He said absent-mindedly before hoisting the lever back up. He rubbed his hands and turned to face Piper, an apologetic look on his face.
"Leo, when was the last time you slept?" She sighed.
"Like, three hours ago! Why? You worried about the Leo Meister?"
"No." She said solidly, "Definitely not."
He shrugged. "So, what brings you to the stern on such a fine day?"
"Wanted to see how you were doing. And, when are we going to get there?" She fessed.
"Hmm, well," He consulted an archimedes ball which was conveniently floating nearby, "Judging by my Nico-Dar, we'll be four days. But, once we get over mainland Greece, we're expecting more attacks. Obviously the zapper will take care of that, but occasionally the big monster will get in through. It probably won't happen, but if it does...then, we'll need to be ready." He looked Piper in the eye.
She gulped and nodded, suddenly uncertain of their plan.
"Exactly. You're thinking 'What if shrimpzilla attacks again?', right?"
Piper just nodded. "Without Percy and Annabeth, we're not as strong as we used to be."
Leo nodded slowly. "But this new goth kid, Nico. He might look weak, but I'm getting vibes that he's really kinda powerful. Son of Hades, and all." He offered.
"I hope you're right."
Just as Piper turned to leave, a scream came from the deck.
The scream was definitely Hazel's, and Piper immediately unsheathed Katoptris and raced after Leo (who was carrying two hammers and had begun smouldering) onto the deck. As she ran onto the deck of the Argo II, Piper immediately stopped dead in her tracks.
A twenty-foot long snake writhed and hissed in the centre of the deck. It had a deep emerald, scaly body with sharp taloned claws and strong, rippling muscles. But the thing that most grabbed Piper was the heads; one at each end of the body. The heads had large, blunt chins and small horns potruding from the scaly head. The teeth of the monster were yellow and sharp; Piper almost hurt just looking at it. The eyes glowed like candles, with apparant electricity coursing through its eyeball veins.
"And this is the 'probably won't happen' part?" Piper shrieked at Leo, unfazing.
He looked genuinely confused, looking between the monster and the top of the ship. "I don't understand. It can't have-"
"Shut up Leo," a voice growled from behind them, "My sister is pinned underneath that...thing." Nico said, his voice menacing.
It was then that Piper realised where the scream had come from. Hazel was trapped underneath the monster's claw, luckily having avoided the sharp claws. But her luck wasn't going to last much longer- it looked as if the monster was about to make a meal out of her.
Piper didn't even know what she was doing- her only instinct was to help Hazel. She felt herself take off and begin running, sprinting towards Hazel, gripping her blade tightly.
A blast of cold wind jetted against her as she ran. Not slowing down, she whipped her head around just in time to catch Frank in eagle form whizz past her. He sped towards the monster's claw and launched himself at it.
Piper had barely paused, and yet so much had happened in the space of a second. It was as if time had slowed down. She could see Nico and Leo running just behind her, Jason flying and landing onto the dragons belly. Frank had flown into Hazel's scaly prison and transformed into human again. Piper could see his mouth moving quickly, forming muffled words. Then he grabbed Hazel in a bodily embrace, as if protecting her. In a split second, the creature's paw exploded in a mass of scales, black dust and fur.
When the debris had cleared, Piper searched for her friends. And she found them both, standing upright and holding onto each other. Frank had a proud glint in his eyes.
"Thank the gods." She heard Nico mumble behind her.
"Yeah," Leo breathed out, "But now it's time for some dragon to get its ass whopped."
Piper cringed. "Sure, but how?"
The dragon had just finished screeching in pain and recoiled from Frank, into the corner of the deck. It looked trapped and frightened. Piper would've believed it was; if not for the baring of it's sharp fangs and gnarly talons.
"Look, guys," Jason landed softly behind Leo, "I know a bit about this one."
The group waited patiently for him to explain furthur. Frank and Hazel joined them, edging carefully around the dragon.
"It's Amphisbaena." He stated, nodding to the new additions of the group. "I know because back in New Rome, we had a bit of a skirmish. But, anyway. It has venomous fangs so don't touch them."
"Yeah, like I was tempted anyway." Leo snorted. The group shot him mild looks of irritation.
"And don't look it in the eye. It kind of hypnotises you."
Piper shifted her weight on her feet. "So, any good news?"
"Luckily, yes. It's not the best of friends with water. In fact," Jason said, looking over the edge of the deck to the choppy ocean, hundreds of metres below. "I can safely bet that if we dropped it down there, it wouldn't bother us any more."
Nico bit his nail nervously and looked at Hazel and Frank.
"We could push it overboard, then." He decided.
"But how?" Hazel asked. "It looks like, at least a few tonnes."
An idea struck Piper. "Well, if we got some of those metal-weighted nets," She pointed towards some nets hanging on the side of the ship, "And pulled it to one side of Amphisbaeana, Hazel could control it and push it over the side."
The group nodded with appraisal. Hazel looked as if she was trying to swallow a lemon. Frank tightened his grip on her hand and whispered some good luck in her ear.
"Let's go then. Jason, help me get the nets. Hazel, get ready. And the rest of you-don't die and keep it distracted." Leo shot orders before dissappearing to fetch the nets with Jason.
Piper switched to fighting mode. Standing at Nico's left flank, herself, Nico and Frank got ready to fight. Amphisbaena looked at them with mild amusement, baring its now venom-dripping maw. It pawed the floor like an angry bull, its claws like nails on blackboard.
"We just need to dance with it." Frank muttered. He concentrated and morphed into a very large, angry-looking bear. Nico lifted his stygian blade and summed a whirling dervish of skeletons. Piper sighed and straightened her plait and readied Katropis.
All three together charged.
Piper darted from spurts of venom and blows from Amphisbaena's second head. By some unspoken agreement, she took the left head, Nico the right and Frank the writhing mass of scaly body. The left head recognised this and rallied with her.
Shouts of encouragement from Hazel spurred her to dodge every blow, slide past every venom pool and ignore the fiendish growls and attempts of eye contact from the monster. Eventually, after a few scratched and bruises, she reached the slithering neck. Slotting Katropis into the scaly armour, she mounted and climbed the neck. Amphisbaena screeched and whined, flipped and shimmied to try and dislodge its unwanted passenger. Through a pattern of knifing and climbing, Piper eventually sat atop its head. The diamond-shaped crown provided the perfect base for her to sit comfortably and balanced.
She cast her eyes around to see how Nico and Frank were doing. Nico and his ghost army were slashing away at the right head, showing no intention of stopping or struggle. Frank in bear form was taking chunks of scale from the body. By the time she looked back round, Piper knew what she had to do.
Readying her knife, she aimed at Amphisbaena's head. Just as she was about to strike downwards, a hand grabbed her and pulled her downwards.
Tumbling down, Piper landed with a thump on the deck. Aching, she regained her balance just in time to dodge a hit from the giant snake. She whirled around to see what had disturbed her. And to her horror, Hazel's blade hit her own.
"In the name of the gods," Piper clenched her teeth, "Why did you look it in the eye?"
Hazel didn't answer, but her eyes flamed like candles. The light was dim and flickered uncontrollably, but it was still there. Suddenly, she swung her arm and her blade darted onto Katroptis. Piper realised she had to fight her.
She blocked a swipe from Hazel with the hilt of her dagger, and used her elbow to shove her battle arm. Hazel counter-attacked and grazed Piper's finger, and this process of girl-on-girl fighting carried on. Hazel swung and parred like a puppet whilst Piper tried her best to keep up. Eventually, one small slip landed Piper on the deck with Hazel trapping her windpipe.
"Hazel," Piper choked, "You don't want to do this." She tried pouring as much charmspeak as possible into her voice, and it made her throat raw.
Hazel's consciounce battled against the power of Amphisbaena. A bead of sweat popped on her forehead and the light in her eyes flickered more than ever, like a candle in the wind.
"I am your friend, don't try to fight me." Her voice rasped, "We need to kill Amphisbaena. To do this, we need your powers!"
The last bit of charmspeak slipped from her throat and she felt Hazel rolling off her onto the deck. As Piper realised she had managed to stay alive, she saw the face of Amphisbaena looming over her and darkness clouding the edge of her vision. The last thing she thought before the monster would strike and she fainted, was that she hoped she could see Percy and Annabeth one last time.