CH 33- PIPER
Helen stared at the ex-Queen of Libya, waking slowly but certainly, stirring. "That isn't possible," Helen said. "That's not possible," she repeated.
Under them, the Earth seemed to rumble, and Helen shot up. "Gaea!" she demanded. "Why are you doing this to me?"
Piper's arm felt like it was on fire. She crawled to Helen's Gucci bag and extracted a flask of what she assumed must be nectar. She hesitated, then downed the whole thing. Her arm felt instantly better, completely healed though there was suddenly a mild pain in her stomach, which she dismissed.
"Oh, Helen," crooned the voice of the Earth. "I expected so much from you, and so little from Lamia, however you have disappointed me and she has pleasantly surprised me."
"That's because I'm smarter than her," Helen countered, throwing a quick glance in the direction of Lamia, whose hands were twitching. "I realised your ideas were flawed sooner than her."
The Earth seemed to hiss, sending little clodpoll's of mud flying. "My ideas are far from flawed, dear Helen. You will come to realise that in your own time."
"So, why are you waking her?" asked Helen.
"My dear, it has become obvious you are now unfaithful to me. I have decided to dispose of you," Gaea informed Helen.
Helen stood very still for a moment. Then, she said clearly. "Okay, Gaea. But you won't get rid of me that easily."
That's when Lamia stood up, a knife in her hand. She started to move towards them. Piper was frozen in time: she assumed this had something to do with Gaea. But then Helen's iPhone buzzed: it read "Text from Unknown: Message: DUCK!"
Without thinking, Piper plunged into the Earth which complied by swallowing her. She screamed but only gulped dirt as maniacal laughter grew louder around her.
She was going to suffocate... she was...
"AGHHHHHHH!"
"Sorry!" Frank stood with his hand covering his mouth. "I didn't mean to pull you out by your hair!"
Piper groaned and rolled over. Her hair felt like it had been electrified.
"How did you get here?" she demanded of Frank.
"Well, I eventually transformed back and I got this Iris-Message kind of vision from... your mom. I guess she transported me to the olive grove and gave me an iPhone." Frank held the white phone up in front of his face, looking puzzled in a cute way. "She told me to text Helen then fly in as a vulture and kill Lamia."
Piper could hardly reply... Aphrodite had done all of this? For her? She swallowed, then stared at Frank again. Then, propulsed by a sudden feeling of affection, she rushed towards him and threw herself into his arms, like a blubbering mess.
Frank simply hugged her back. He didn't say anything, just hugged her until she finally pulled away and apologized. "Sorry, I guess..."
"Emotion overload?" Frank suggested.
Piper coughed out a strangled laugh and nodded, a mix of hysteria and mental unstability.
"I deal with that a lot. Especially when my mom..." Frank trailed off. His big black eyes looked incredibly sad.
Piper sat down, feeling tired and absolutely drained. But then, jumping up, she remembered, "Helen!"
"Oh no!" Frank cried immediately. "She's still under!"
"WHAT?" Piper shrieked.
Without another word, Frank had transformed into a mole and disappeared under the Earth. A moment later, Piper shrieked as a tunnel appeared and a hand protruded from it. Nevertheless, she grabbed the hand and yanked. A few minutes later, there was another hand and part of Helen's head that were revealed. Piper, with the help of Frank-the-mole heaved her out. As soon as her whole body was de-earthed, Helen began to cough violently, dirt spewing out of her mouth.
"Oh my Gods, Helen, are you okay?" Piper asked anxiously. She grabbed Helen's gold Gucci bag and extracted a square of Ambrosia which she bascially forced down her friend's throat. With all her coughing, most of the ambrosia didn't make it in, so Piper stuffed more ambrosia into Helen's mouth.
Finally, Helen's coughing subsided and she looked up at Piper.
"Cave," she said. "Now."
Frank transformed into an eagle and soared above the small island of Paxoi, Helen on his back and Piper grabbing onto his feet. It was kind of terrifying, really, and Piper concluded she much preferred Jason's type of flying.
Jason!
Piper almost smacked herself on the forehead, and then remembered she was flying a sixty feet above ground by holding onto an eagle's feet, and decided it would be wiser not to.
Jason would be worried sick about her! He'd think she was drowned, or captured by Gaea!
Or... would he?
Every single doubt Piper had ever had about her boyfriend travelled to the front of Piper's mind, as if to remind her, to make her feel resentful.
You overanalyze, my sweet.
Suddenly, the clouds that were above them were pink. A form of a slim woman floated gracefully near them. When she saw Piper staring at her she waved, and swooped down, so she was flying face to Piper.
"Mother?" Piper choked out.
Aphrodite smiled.
Piper could barely speak. "Thank you so much..."
"I am, after all, your mother, my beauty," Aphrodite reminded her. "It is mothers duty to help their daughters, is it not?"
Piper didn't trust herself not to start crying if she opened her mouth so she simply nodded.
"I'm here to offer you advice," Aphrodite continued, thankfully passing over Piper's quivering chin. "About Jason."
Piper perked up instantly. If there was one person who knew, or cared, what Jason was thinking it was her mother.
"You overthink, deary," Aphrodite reproached. "He is very worried about you, you know. He has good reasons for being distant."
"Don't suppose you could tell me what they are," Piper suggested.
Aphrodite laughed, and shook her head. "Piper, although I am here to talk about Jason, I also want to discuss something deeper."
Piper raised an eyebrow. "What is that?"
"Your fatal flaw," Aphrodite answered. "Every hero has one. I believe your friend Annabeth's is hubris, her pride. Every hero has one, and the important thing is to find out what it is."
"So, what's mine?" Piper asked nonchalantly, trying not to let on how much this moment scared her.
"The flaw to overthink," Aphrodite informed her. "You always wonder what could have been, and you think too much about the best option. You always search for the most complicated meaning, and while your perseverance is admirable, you sometimes have to...go with the flow, don't think just do. You know, as you youngsters say... hashtag yolo. Did I get that right?"
Piper raised an eyebrow at her mom, but felt slightly dazed. This was her fatal flaw? She'd expected that she was destined to die, but Aphrodite was telling her that... she thought too much?
"It's not like that," the goddess immediately said, as if she'd been reading Piper's mind. "Imagine this: Jason is worried about you, and after overthinking, you assume he isn't."
Piper felt Frank starting to swoop down and knew they were landing, but she desperately wanted Aphrodite to tell her more.
"So, you don't I-Message him, and then he thinks you're dead. He's too depressed to go on his quest, and dies himself. All because of your overthinking."
Piper could barely breathe. "Is that what's happening right now?" she whispered weakly.
"Yes," answered Aphrodite. "Go back to the ship, the crew needs you."
"Is it urgent?"
Her mother nodded gravely. Suddenly, her blonde curled hair seemed to wilt. Her clear, tanned skin became pale and dry. Her beautiful blue eyes became transparent and ghostly. Her full lips were thin and pursed,
"Mom!" Piper cried. "What's happening to you?"
Aphrodite looked pained. "Love is no more, my beautiful Piper. Because of this war, the little love there was on this Earth is dissipating. Real beauty is failing. Soon, I will become like the God Pan. I will have no more reason to live. Without love, I am nothing."
Tears streamed down Piper's face. "That can't be! What can I do to stop this?"
"Bring a little love back in to this world," Aphrodite instructed her. "Bring true beauty back. I know you can do it."
The tears falling uncontrollably out of Piper's eyes wouldn't stop. "I'll try," she hiccuped.
Aphrodite smiled, and leaned in to kiss her daughter's cheek. "You're my favorite hero," her mom whispered. And with that, she was gone as Piper hit the ground.
Helen, who had landed somewhat more gracefully, offered Piper a hand, and helped her up.
"Guys," said Piper. "We need to get back to the ship. Now."
***
Helen had, it proved been very useful. After they'd given her the approximative latitude and longitude of the ship, she'd walked them to the dock, and showed them a small ship called The Spartan that belonged to her.
"You're coming too, right?" Piper asked her friend.
Helen's eyes widened. "You mean I'm invited?'
"Of course!"
"Gods, okay! I'll come then. Let me just get a few belongings." she ran back to her cave
It turned out that her few belongings were her entire wardrobe.
"Nice job, Helen. Nice job."
Helen ignored her friend, and climbed onto the ship.
Frank had a more skeptical view of the whole thing, "Helen, how're we getting there?"
"I'm friends with a couple sea spirits. They'll help us."
Sure enough, the boat was moving along at the speed of light and in less then ten minutes they were at the ship. At this moment, Frank approached Piper, and whispered in her ear, his breath moist,
"Doesn't it seem like this quest was too easy?"
Piper hesitated. What Frank was saying had a very fair point: they had immediately found Helen on the island, defroze Frank, and even the dealing with Queen Lamia had been pretty easy. Now, they were about to board the Argo II again. But she had to see Jason...
She gave an unconvincing shake of the head, and determinedly climbed the board onto the ship, thinking about what Frank had said.
However, all these thoughts dissipated as she saw Jason climbing the stairs. Her heart dropped into the sea then flew up to the sky as she saw him, looking so good in a purple t-shirt and jeans.
"Jason," she choked out, a millimeter away from letting her tears run down her cheek.
Jason looked up. So many emotions passed through his eyes in a second, but the next second his arms were wrapped around Piper, his warm lips pressed to hers.
Piper was aware of her friends talking behind her, but in that moment no one mattered but Jason. She broke away, and looked straight into his blue eyes. "I'm so sorry, Jason."
He cut her off. "Shh, it's okay, I understand." He pulled her back, this time into a hug and finally her tears came running down her cheeks and into his shirt.
After a long time, he pulled away.
"Sorry for your shirt," Piper said about his soaked tee.
Jason grinned at her, so much like the grin he'd shot her when she'd suggested they dance on top of the roof, so long ago. "I don't mind."
Then Annabeth came up to her, hugging her and murmuring apologies into her ear. Piper forgave, and Annabeth apologized endlessly until Jason got tired of it and broke them apart.
There was an odd chemistry between Jason and Annabeth, Piper decided, like as if they'd been fighting and the awkward times when the fight has just been resolved. But she decided to ignore it.
"We have to go, Jason," Annabeth announced.
Jason nodded. It seemed as if Piper's time with him had flown and snapped by in a second. She again hugged him, whispering in his ear, "Be careful. I love you."
"I love you too," he whispered back.
And then he was already gone.
Suddenly, Piper was very aware of a throbbing pain in her stomach. She'd assumed it was anticipation of seeing Jason, but now that he was gone her stomach hurt just as much as before.
She sank tiredly to the ground. In a minute, the pain had increased so much she was hardly able to bear it. Aware of Helen saying her name, she tried to respond, but her lips wouldn't move. Panicked, she tried to get up but her joints wouldn't budge. And suddenly, everything went black.
Hahaha, sorry bout that cliffie. You'll have to go back to the start of the chapter and remember why Piper's stomach was hurting and be like OHHHHHH and yeah.
This is dedicated to @karanpatel10 for being the first to suggest an idea :) xo tysm.
Idk if y'all have noticed but Tessassy and I have started a new book, called 'The Quest of Four'. It's about the children of all the couples from Heroes of Olympus. Until the real BoO comes out, this fanfic will still be our priority but after that we're totally focusing on Qo4 so you should totally check it out :) we'll be giving dedications and shout outs and stuff to new commenters on it. So yeah, it'd be nice if you read it. Click the external link to view it :) xox
Thanks for reading guys! We can't believe we have over 1K votes on this! We can't believe we've come this far, and it's all thanks to you! <3
Rachel :) xo