Jason took her hand as they made their way through the dark. It was a light touch, reassuring. Daria had never been one to be afraid of shadows, but at that moment, she wanted to do nothing more than picnic with Jason on the Berkeley Hills, watching the setting sun.
They let Piper and Percy take the lead. Piper, after having saved their asses, strode confidently. Daria had never thought of Piper as helpless, but no matter how much she downplayed her beauty, there would always be a softness to her that was missing from Annabeth or even Hazel.
She supposed it came with being a daughter of Aphrodite. This soft pink hue that surrounded her every act. Piper was strong, self-assured, but there was a darkness in the rest of them that hadn't touched her yet. A weariness that didn't live in her shimmering eyes.
The rumbling sound came in and out of focus as she thought. Obviously, whatever was making the noise was dangerous, which is why Percy had decided that it was their destination.
Jason was staticky beside her. Not literally, not this time. But his hold was nervous and jerky, like he was already anticipating the fight ahead.
He must have noticed her staring because he shook his head. "The odds are different," he explained. "Krios was three against one, Porphyrion was technically three, plus the Hunters. There are two giants, and four demigods, and we don't have a God."
"We've faced worse odds," Daria was confused. "Four against two, and you and Percy combined are devastating. What's really the matter? Was it the cave?"
"I haven't told you," he admitted. "Anyone. There's been too much going on. But I can't stop thinking about Hercules."
"What about him?" She could see a turn in the tunnel up ahead. The rumbling sound was getting louder.
"He told Piper to be wary of Sons of Jupiter." Daria could barely see, but Jason's mouth was set in an unconfident line. "He said 'they can be', but he never finished his thought. And I keep wondering what that something is. What if it gets us killed?"
"Whatever he was going to say probably had something to do with your fatal flaw." She squeezed his hand. "We all have one. This might not make you feel better, but we all have an equally likely chance of getting people killed. Which means it all cancels out, really."
Jason rolled his eyes with amusement. He opened his mouth-probably to say something along the lines of, "That is absolutely the worst take I've ever heard, and statistically...", but Percy motioned for them to stay quiet. They were at the end of the tunnel now, pressed against the rock wall.
He peeked around the corner, and Daria could see him try and comprehend the sight in front of him.
"What is it?" Piper whispered.
"It's..." Percy shook his head. "Well come see for yourself."
About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof. "What the fuck?" Jason muttered.
About a hundred yards away, she spotted a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chairs. Standing between them was a bronze jar big enough to hold a person. "Look." Daria pointed it out to her friends.
Piper frowned. "That's too easy."
"Of course," Percy said.
"But we have no choice," Jason said. "We've got to save Nico."
"Yeah," Percy agreed.
They traveled slowly, ducking under cages of wolves and jumping over pipelines. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, the animals looked at them with bored expressions, as if it wouldn't be worth it to kill them. It was so obviously a trap. But they had no choice.
About halfway to Nico was when everything started to go wrong. The ceiling opened with a blinding light, a platform lowering one of the twins, standing a good twelve feet tall. The giant's hair was braided with gold and silver coins. He had a ten-foot spear strapped to his back, which wasn't a good fashion statement with the Hawaiian shirt. He wore bright white jeans and leather sandals on his...well, not feet, but curved snakeheads. The snakes flicked their tongues and writhed as if they didn't appreciate holding up the weight of a giant.
"At last!" he bellowed with a grin. "So very happy! Honestly, I didn't think you'd make it past the nymphs, but it's so much better that you did. Much more entertaining. You're just in time for the main event!"
The four of them closed ranks which made Daria feel a little bit more hopeful. "Well we're here," she said, sounding stupidly obvious. "Now let our friend go."
"Of course!" Ephialtes said. "Though I fear he's a bit past his expiration date. Otis, where are you?"
A stone's throw away, the floor opened, and the other giant rose on a platform.
"Otis, finally!" his brother cried with glee. "You're not dressed the same as me! You're..." Ephialtes's expression turned to horror. "What are you wearing?"
Jason mimicked the giant with a look of disgust. "I really wish I was blind."
Otis was dressed in a baby blue leotard that didn't cover as much as it should have. Daria was all for self-expression, but this outfit, complete with a glittering diamond tiara, felt more like self-sabotage.
"Gods and Titans!" Ephialtes yelled. "It's showtime! What are you thinking?"
"I didn't want to wear the gladiator outfit," Otis complained. "I still think a ballet would be perfect, you know, while Armageddon is going on." He raised his eyebrows hopefully at the demigods. "I have some extra costumes—"
"No!" Ephialtes snapped, and for once Daria was in agreement.
"Please excuse my brother," he said. "His stage presence is awful, and he has no sense of style."
"Okay." Percy decided not to comment further. "Now, about our friend..."
"Oh, him," Ephialtes sneered. "We were going to let him finish dying in public, but he has no entertainment value. He's spent days curled up sleeping. What sort of spectacle is that? Otis, tip over the jar."
Otis trudged over to the dais, stopping occasionally to do a plié. He knocked over the jar, the lid popped off, and Nico di Angelo spilled out. The sight of his deathly pale face and too skinny frame made Daria's heart stop. Daria couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead. She wanted to rush over and check, but Ephialtes stood in his way.
"You two are insane," Piper snapped.
"That may be so, Piper Mclean," the Big F said coldly. "But alas, the rest of your little friends are walking right into traps of their own. We can let the Athena girl die, which will please Her Ladyship. And we can use you three for the show! Gaea will be a bit disappointed, but really, this is a win-win. Your deaths will be much more entertaining."
Jason snarled. "You want entertaining? I'll give you entertaining." Daria touched his wrist lightly to stop him from doing something stupid like charging at two giants with a measley scabbard.
"Oh, this spectacle will be wonderful!" Ephialtes promised. "The Romans always wanted bread and circuses—food and entertainment! As we destroy their city, I will offer them both. Behold, a sample!"
Something dropped from the ceiling and landed at Percy's feet: a loaf of sandwich bread in a white plastic wrapper with red and yellow dots.
Percy picked it up. "Wonder bread?"
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Ephialtes's eyes danced with crazy excitement. "You can keep that loaf. I plan on distributing millions to the people of Rome as I obliterate them."
"Wonder bread is good," Otis admitted. "Though the Romans should dance for it."
"Exactly," his brother agreed. "But we have much better entertainment planned! The three of you will die in agony, up above, where all the gods and mortals can watch. But that's just the opening ceremony! In the old days, games went on for days or weeks. Our spectacle—the destruction of Rome—will go on for one full month until Gaea awakens."
"Wait," Jason said. "One month, and Gaea wakes up?"
Ephialtes waved away the question. "Yes, yes. Something about August First being the best date to destroy all humanity. Not important! In her infinite wisdom, the Earth Mother has agreed that Rome can be destroyed first, slowly and spectacularly. It's only fitting!"
"So..." Daria couldn't believe Percy was talking about the end of the world with a loaf of Wonder bread in his hand. "You're Gaea's warm-up act."
Behind the chaos, she could see Nico crawling away from the cage, groaning. Daria wanted to tell him to crawl faster and groan less, but she figured if she said that, and they got out of here alive, Nico would skewer her.
Jason switched his sword hand, gearing for a fight. "And if we refuse to cooperate with your spectacle?"
"Well, you can't kill us." Ephialtes laughed, as if the idea was ridiculous. "You have no gods with you, and that's the only way you could hope to triumph. So really, it would be much more sensible to die painfully. Sorry, but the show must go on."
Daria looked at her friends. "You know, this monologue kind of sucks."
"Combat time?" Piper aked.
"On three," Percy agreed.
Jason brandished his sword, a mix of Roman and Greek. "I hate Wonder Bread."
Together they charged.
***
Effectively, the plan was something like: Percy would attack Ephialtes, Jason would go for Otis, Daria would fend off the leopards and other live things trying to kill them, and Piper would protect Nico.
About twenty percent of this actually happened.
The giants disappeared as soon as Percy charged, reappearing on separate sides of the arena. He watched Ephialtes push some sort of button on the mechanical dashboard, like those arcade grab machines. One of the cages containing a hydra opened a few feet from Daria, who had just managed to spear through a wolf, grimacing as she did so.
"Go!" She called, already dodging the poison the monster was spewing. "I'll be fine!"
Percy didn't know how true that was, but Jason nodded grimly at him, so he assumed that he believed Daria. Piper was also doing pretty well on her journey to Nico; she jumped over creeks of fire, which receded whenever she got close. Maybe she had found a way to charmspeak it.
All of this seemed to happen in a matter of seconds. Jason was already charging at Otis again, leaving Percy to figure out how to lure Ephialtes out from behind the dashboard. Then, something caught his eye.
A few paces behind Daria was something like an artist's easel, fitted with several levers. Percy spotted a bazooka, a grenade launcher, a giant Roman candle, and a dozen other wicked looking weapons. They all seemed to be wired together, pointing in the same direction and connected to a single bronze lever on the side. At the top of the easel, spelled in carnations, were the words: HAPPY DESTRUCTION, ROME!
Percy bolted towards the device, just as the hydra dove towards Daria. Out of reflex, she swung her sword. "Damn it!" She yelled as two more heads grew back. He knew from experience it was nearly impossible to kill a hydra with just a sword-even if you were a practiced swordswoman. He considered the easel, maybe he could help.
Percy wanted to be clear, he didn't want to see his cousin dead; he was mad, of course, and he also deserved an apology. But Daria was still his cousin, and she was in danger.
"I know!" Ephialtes cried out happily. "We can start with explosions along the Via Labicana! We can't keep our audience waiting forever."
Percy scrambled behind the easel and turned it toward Ephialtes. He didn't have Leo's skill with machines, but he knew how to aim a weapon. The easel began to shake so hard that he could barely keep his grip.
"Duck and cover!" Percy yelled, hoping his friends got the message.
Percy leaped to one side as the easel fired. The sound was like a fiesta in the middle of an exploding gunpowder factory. The hydra vaporized instantly, but unfortunately, the recoil knocked the easel sideways and sent more projectiles shooting all over the room.
To his far left, sandbags rained down around Piper and Nico. Piper tried to pull Nico to safety, but one of the bags caught her shoulder and knocked her down.
"Piper!" Jason cried. He ran toward her, completely forgetting about Otis, who aimed his spear at Jason's back.
"Look out!" Daria yelled. Her arms were covered in monster dust, she didn't wait for Jason to roll out of the way-which he did with an unfair amount of grace, no pun intended, instead choosing her next victim.
Jason ran to Piper's side. She yelped when he touched her arm. Her shoulder looked unnaturally bent, but she muttered, "Fine. I'm fine." Next to her, Nico sat up, looking around him in bewilderment as if just realizing he'd missed a battle.
"Percy!" Jason shouted. "The controls!"
Percy unfroze. He found Riptide in his pocket again, uncapped his sword, and lunged for the switchboard. He slashed his blade across the top, decapitating the controls in a shower of bronze sparks.
"No!" Ephialtes wailed. "You've ruined the spectacle!"
Percy turned too slowly. Ephialtes swung his spear like a bat and smacked him across the chest. He fell to his knees, the pain turning his stomach to lava.
Jason ran to his side, but Otis lumbered after him. Percy managed to rise and found himself shoulder to shoulder with Jason. Over by the dais, Piper was still on the floor, unable to get up. Nico was barely conscious.
And Daria...Percy saw it happen too late. As he lay on the floor, Ephialtes approached his cousin from behind. He heard Jason yell something at her but she was already trapped, several feet in the air.
"Let me go!" She screeched. "You ugly, lumbering, great big-"
He put his hand over her mouth, which would've, in any other circumstances, been amusing. Her green eyes blazed with anger and she seemed to be looking down at Jason as if saying, are you going to do something about this?
Thankfully, Gaea's influence seemed to be worth something-apparently, she wanted her daughter alive. Side note: did that make Gaea his aunt? He really didn't want to think about that. Anyways, Ephialtes stuck her in one of the many empty cages floating above them. Percy had this ridiculous flashback to the Amazon headquarters.
"You cause too much trouble!" The giant said brightly, as if he was scolding a toddler. Daria snarled.
"Ah," Jason said meekly, making his way over to Percy once he decided that Daria wasn't in imminent danger. "Just hold on tight, okay?" There was a light sheen of sweat on his brow and Percy felt the same way.
Ephialtes smiled apologetically. "Tired, Percy Jackson? As I said, you cannot kill us. So I guess we're at an impasse. Oh, wait...no we're not! Because we can kill you!"
"That," Otis grumbled, picking up his fallen spear, "is the first sensible thing you've said all day, brother." The giants pointed their weapons, ready to turn Percy and Jason into a demigod-kabob.
"We're not giving up," Jason growled. "We'll cut you into pieces like Jupiter did to Saturn." "That's right," Percy agreed. "You're both dead. I don't care if we have a god on our side or not." "Well, that's a shame," said a new voice.
To his right, another platform lowered from the ceiling. Leaning casually on a pinecone-topped staff was a man in a purple camp shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals with white socks. He raised his broad-brimmed hat, and purple fire flickered in his eyes. "I'd hate to think I made a special trip for nothing."