°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ ENDGAME} act iii. . .
. . .true love, that doesn't exist
CHAPTER ELEVEN°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
— 'the gods junkyard'
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Rayn°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
We rode the boar until sunset. It wasn't the most comfortable experience. We traveled many miles, the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land.
The night fell and the boar stopped abruptly, almost knocking me off. He started chewing on some cactus I didn't recognise.
"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he is eating."
The board galloped off, leaving us in the middle of nowhere, and covered in sand.
I looked around to see an old taco shop, a white stucco post office, and a mountain made from cars, appliances and scrap metals.
"Whoa," Percy said.
"If only we could get a working car here," Thalia said, then turned to Grover. "Don't suppose you have another wild boar up your sleeve?"
Grover sniffed the air, which I found weird. Then threw his acorns into the air. They fell and rearranged themselves in a pattern I had no idea what it was.
"That's us," he said. "Those six nuts right there."
"Which one is me?" Percy asked.
"The little deformed one," Zoe suggested
"Oh, shut up."
I bursted out laughing, I didn't expect the insult from Zoe.
"I cant breathe," I gasped in between laughs and high-fived Zoe.
"Are you okay, there?" Percy asked.
"No," I couldn't stop laughing no matter how hard I tried. "The nut does look like you."
"Hey!"
Grover glared at me and I finally composed myself. "As I was saying, that cluster right there," he pointed to the left. "That's trouble."
"A monster?" Thalia asked.
Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..."
He pointed toward the junkyard. The suns glow had faded which made the junkyard look sinister.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
We set up camp for the night. Nobody wanted to go dumpster-diving in the dark.
Zoe and Bianca produced six foam mattresses and five pillows.
"Wait, where's my pillow?" Percy looked around.
"You don't get one," Zoe said. "You're lucky you got a mattress, we only packed enough for five."
Bianca rummaged in her pack. "Wait, I have a spare pillow—"
"No." Zoe stopped her from pulling it out. "No pillow for the boy."
The night was cold fast. Thalia zapped some wood to make a fire but it didn't help much.
"The stars are out," Zoe said.
I looked at the millions of stars across the sky.
After some random talks about coffee and proper English. Everyone had fallen asleep except a pillow-less Percy and me.
"Do you want my pillow?" I asked him. His eyes lit up at the thought of it.
"Really?" He sounded so excited over the thing. He dragged his mattress over beside me and I handed him the pillow.
I smiled when he plopped down on the pillow. "Thanks, flower power."
"You're welcome, seaweed brain," I laughed slightly.
He looked at where my pillow had been before, like he realized I was missing one now.
"Here," he moved over and left space on the pillow for me. "We can share it."
I thought about it for a minute, then moved over. Our faces were so close together, I could feel my face burn up.
Before I knew it I had fallen asleep, it was the first time ever I didn't have a horrible nightmare.
A blinding light woke me up. I was hoping it was Apollo giving us a ride again but the dazzling white limousine said otherwise.
The back door of the limousine opened next to Percy and I. Before I could move a blade was pointed at Percy's throat.
I drew my sword and pointed it at the owner of the other sword pushed Percy back.
He smiled cruelly. "Not so fast now, are you punk?"
I recognized the tall broody man.
"Ares," I greeted him coldly.
The war god glanced at everyone aiming weapons at him. "At ease, people."
He snapped his fingers and my sword has fallen to the floor, like everyone else's weapons.
"This is a friendly meeting," he dug the point of the blade a little farther under Percy's chin and I winced. "I would love to take your head as a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."
"What lady?" Thalia asked.
Ares glanced at her. "Well, well, I heard you were back."
He lowered his sword and kicked Percy down onto his back.
"Daughter of Zeus," Ares mused. "You're not hanging out with very good company." He looked over at me.
"Rayn," he forced a smile. "What a nice surprise..!"
"Hooray.." I crossed my arms. "Guessing your girlfriend's in the car?"
He nodded proudly at the thought of his girlfriend. "She wants to meet Percy. Not any of you. Especially not these." He pointed his sword at Zoe and Bianca.
"I'm not leaving you alone with him." I said as sternly as I could.
He shot daggers with his eyes in my direction, then turned to the others. "Why don't you get some tacos? This won't take long."
"The taco place is closed," Grover managed.
With a flick of the gods wrist, the taco shop was brand new. "Now, go."
"Like I said," I walked closer to Ares. "I'm not leaving you with Percy."
Ares cracked his knuckles. "You little-"
"Rayn, it's fine," Percy dusted his top off. "I'll handle this."
I was about to object but I saw the shimmering image from the camp forest. I started to advance towards it.
"Rayn, where are you going?" Thalia asked.
"One second, I'll meet you guys, uh, there," I gestured my hand for them to go to the taco shop, and nobody objected.
The shimmering image led me where nobody could see us, I thought it was a trap until I realized who it was.
"Chase?" I asked.
He turned around and smiled, but before I could speak again, he was gone.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Percy°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked, after I told them about Aphrodite.
"I'm not sure," I lied. "She said to be careful and not take anything from the junkyard."
Zoe narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy, Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."
"For once, I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust her."
They all stared at me and I was desperate to change the topic. Then I realized something. "Where's Rayn?"
"I'm not sure," Grover looked around anxiously. "She walked a different way from us, she was meant to meet us at the taco place but..."
I looked around frantically. "You let her walk away, on her own?"
"Calm down," Thalia said. "She wouldn't go far, she's able to take care of herself."
As if she could hear us, Rayn walked over to us. Her eyes were a little red, like she'd been crying. Nobody seemed to notice, except me.
"Sorry," she said. "I went a little further than I thought."
"It's fine," Bianca said. "How do we get out of here?"
"That way," Zoe said. "That is west."
"How can you tell?" I asked, I thought it was a reasonable question until Zoe rolled her eyes at me.
"Ursa Major is in the north," she said. "So that must be west."
"Oh yeah," I said. "The bear thing."
Zoe looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."
"You act like it was real."
"Guys," Grover interrupted before Zoe and I fought. "Look!"
We reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight. None of it looked like junk, if I could take any of it, I'd make a fortune.
"Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff... some of it looks like real gold."
"It is," Rayn said grimly. "Don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."
"Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver and jewels. It was shattered on one side, like an axe had broken it. "You call this junk?"
He bit off some of it and began to chew. "It's delicious!"
Rayn smacked the crown from his hands. "I'm serious!"
"Look!" Bianca said. She raced down the hill and picked up a glowing silver bow. "A Hunter's bow!"
She yelped when the bow shrunk into a moon shaped hair clip.
Zoe's face turned grim. "Leave it, Bianca."
"But—"
"It's here for a reason. The stuff here is either defective or cursed." Rayn told her with a soft smile.
"Ohh," Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.
"I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear so tightly her knuckles turned white.
"You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" I asked.
She gave me a stern look. "Rayn is right, Percy. Things get thrown away for a reason. Now come on, let's get across the yard."
We picked our way through the hills and valleys of junk. The yard seemed to go in forever, and if it hadn't been for the Ursa Major, we would've been lost. Everything looked the exact same.
I would like to say we left the stuff alone, but some of it was too cool to not check out. I found an electric guitar shaped like Apollo's lyre, Grover found a tree made from metal, Rayn found a sword identical to hers.
"Imagine how badass I'd be with two swords," I watched as she swung them both around in sync. When she got bored of it she threw it away.
"You should get another sword when we get back to camp," I said as we walked away.
"Definitely." I heard doubt in her voice, and that worried me.
"What is that?" Bianca gasped.
The edge of the junkyard was about half a mile ahead of us, the lights of a highway stretched throughout the desert. But between us and the road...
"Is that toes?" Grover asked.
Bianca nodded. "Really large toes."
Zoe, Thalia and Rayn looked at each other nervously.
"Let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."
"But the road is right over there," I protested. "Quicker to climb over."
Ping.
Thalia hefted her spear, Zoe drew her bow and Rayn readied her sword. I realized it was only Grover that had thrown a piece of scrap metal at the toes.
"Why did you do that?" Zoe demanded.
Grover cringed. "I don't know. I, uh, dont like fake feet?"
"Come on." Rayn grabbed my wrist. "Around."
I didn't argue. I knew if I did I would lose, and the toes had started to freak me out. I mean, who sticks toes in a junkyard?
After several minutes of walking, we finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.
"We made it out," Zoe said. "Thank the gods."
Apparently, the gods didn't want to be thanked. I heard a sound like a thousand trash-compactors crushing metal.
I whirled around. Behind us, the scrap mountain rose. The toes, were definitely toes. The thing that rose from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armor. He was impossibly tall, like a skyscraper.
"Talos!" Zoe gasped.
"Who's—who's Talos," I stuttered.
"One of Hephaestus's creations," Rayn said. "But that can't be the original. He's too small. A prototype maybe. Or a defective model."
The metal giant didn't like being called defective.
He moved his hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. The blade was a hundred feet long. Getting hit with that thing would be a terminal case.
"Someone took something," Zoe said."Who took something?"
She stared accusingly at me.
I shook my head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."
Bianca stayed quiet. I could swear she looked guilty, but I didn't have much time to think. Talos 2.0 took one step towards us making the ground shake.
"Run!" Grover yelped.
We split up, like the way we'd done with the Nemean Lion. Thalia drew her sword with her shield and she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which explained exploded in sparks.
Zoe's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed like. Baby goat and went climbing up a mountain. Rayn stood back with her sword ready.
Bianca and I ended up next to each other, hiding behind a broken chariot.
"You took something," I said. "That bow."
"No!" She said, but her voice was quivering.
"Give it back!" I said. "Throw it down!"
"I... I didn't take the bow! Besides, it's too late."
"What did you take?"
Before she could answer, I heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow appeared from above us.
"Move!" I tore down the hill, Bianca right behind me, as a giants foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd just been hiding.
"Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and me.
Grover hurriedly played a melody on his pipes. The knocked down power lines began to dance. A cord still wrapped around Talos's leg send shocks up his backside.
Talos whirled around which bought us a few seconds.
"Come on!" I told Bianca but she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she pulled out a metal figurine. "It... it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."
"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" I said.
There were tears in her eyes.
"Throw it down," I said. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone."
She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Rayn°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
The giant kept coming after Grover. My vines were no use, they couldn't hold the Talos down.
I ran towards Grover, in fear he was about to be sent to an early grave. "No!" I yelled.
I shoved him out of the way before a scrap metal avalanche collapsed onto him. I looked down at my leg, a chunk of metal stuck out from my calf.
I heard Thalia yell something in Greek, then she blasted the giant with lighting into the monsters rusty knee. He collapsed, but immediately started to rise again.
He raised his foot to stomp, there was a trap door under his sole but I couldn't read the writing on it.
"Move! Go! Hurry!" I shoved Grover and we ran.
I'm glad for adrenaline, I would've been as flat as a pancake if I wasn't able to run.
I saw Bianca trying to balance on the metal scraps next to the giants feet.
Zoe yelled, "what are you doing?"
"Get it to raise its foot!" Bianca said.
After some failed attempts, the giants foot didn't raise. I had an idea, but I'd have to be down there for it.
"Grover, listen to me," I said. "Pull the metal from my leg as fast as you can."
"Are you crazy?" He raised his eyebrow.
"Maybe," I looked down at the others. "Do it now!"
He ripped the metal from my leg, it hurt badly but I was praying that the adrenaline would allow me to run still.
I stopped around forty feet from the giants leg. I placed my hand on the ground and soon enough, vines sprouted from the ground under Talos. His foot lifted up.
"Whatever you're going to do, do it now!" I felt sweat on my face, I wasn't sure if it was from my injury or using my powers, or both. "I cant hold this for much longer!"
I turned and ran, I didn't see what Bianca was doing. But my vines would only hold for so little longer.
I fell to the floor, my leg started to throb. I wasn't sure if I could even walk anymore.
I watched in horror as the monster turned to Grover who had made his way down to play his pipes. Grover should've run, but he must've been too exhausted, he took two steps and fell.
"Grover!" I started to limp towards him but I'd be too late. I reached my arm out, vines sprung from the ground and blocked Talos's sword. The sweat on my forehead grew as the giant used more force.
I was sure I would pass out, but Talos froze. He started moving his head and legs in weird ways. Then made a fist and punched himself in the face.
"Go Bianca!" Percy yelled.
Zoe looked horrified. "She is inside?"
The monster staggered around and I realized nobody was saved yet. Thalia and Percy grabbed Grover and ran with him towards the highway. Zoe was already halfway ahead of them. She yelled. "How will Bianca get out?"
I started to limp up towards them but my knees buckled and I went rolling down the hill, like a little kid playing outside.
"Rayn!" I heard Percy and Thalia yell.
I felt an arm grab me, I thought it was going to be Percy, but when I looked up...
"Zoe?" My voice sounded horrible.
She smiled at me and got me to my feet. She helped me over to the others.
I looked back at Talos, his left arm was on the floor. He was falling apart at the joints.
Talos began to run.
"Wait!" Zoe yelled. Percy and Thalia ran after him, but there was no way they could keep up. Pieces of the robot kept falling off, getting in our way.
The giant crumpled from the top down, until he was nothing but a wreckage of metal.
"Wait... Bianca!" I screamed, I hopped over as fast as I could.
We searched frantically, yelling Bianca's name. We searched until the sun started to rise, but no luck.
Zoe sat down and wept. I was stunned to see her cry. I couldn't help but let a few tears escape from my eyes.
Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giants smashed face.
I shoved metal scraps out of my way until my hands bled. Never did I give up, my blood soaked into the earth floor as I searched for Bianca. Thinking of Nico.
"Rayn," Percy put his hand on my shoulder. "It's light now, we'll find her."
"No we won't," Grover said miserably. "It happened just as it was supposed to."
"What are you talking about?" Percy demanded.
He looked at him with big watery eyes. "The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain."
The tears poured down my face now, why hadn't I seen it? I practically helped her die.
Percy pulled me into a hug as I cried, my tears soaking his shirt.
I thought of Nico, how he had basically lost his sister twice now. I thought of Bianca's smile, the night on the cliff to now, but nothing could erase the feeling of grief and guilt I felt for her death.
We stood in the desert. And Bianca Di Angelo was gone.
Rip Bianca, hope you liked the pancake reference pre-death
Poor Nico he deserves the world
TYSM FOR READING<3
©️gracexeo , 2024