riley doesn't want her to be dead

i stood outside the limo.

to be honest, i didn't want to be stuck outside with ares. he kind of creeps me out.

"sorry 'bout your dad." ares grunted.

my head whipped over. since when did ares show sympathy? nevertheless, just because percy had the war god on his bad side, doesn't mean i needed him on my bad side too.

"s'okay." i muttered.

i stood, kicking the ground. well, this was awkward. 

"he's got a warrior's spirit." ares said. i looked up at him. i knew he was talking about my dad. but i wasn't sure what he meant.

"what do you mean?" i blurted.

he looked down at me. "he doesn't back away from a fight. you learnt that from him. and i respect it."

i nodded slowly. i knew that was true. my dad never backed away from anything. even if he had no idea what the hell he was doing, he'd 'fake it, till he makes it'. that's one of the things that took him this far in life. it's why he's my hero.

i took a deep breath, and tried not to let any tears spill. i didn't want to cry in front of the god of war. thankfully my saving grace came in the form of percy.

percy stumbled out of the limo. he was red, and blushing. 

my mom did that to people.

"she wants to see you," percy muttered. he wouldn't meet my eyes, and he was stumbling over his words.

"you okay?" i asked.

i heard ares snicker in the back.

percy swallowed and nodded. i furrowed my brows at his behavior. 

i motioned to ares with my chin, "don't do something stupid." i warned him.

"yeah, okay," he muttered.

i went into the limo, and my breath got caught in my throat. she was beautiful, as always. at first she had the same curly caramel hair, as the first time. her eyes were strikingly blue. her freckles were outlined, and they complimented her skin.

then her appearance changed. she had dark brown hair, like my own. her eyes were a familiar brown. looking into them, i felt myself tear up. she smiled at me sadly.

then her appearance settled down. she had shoulder length black hair. it was parted in beach waves. her eyes were a dazzling green. darker than cayden's forest green. more like a sea-green. 

she seemed to be teary-eyed.

"what's wrong?" i asked her.

aphrodite reached out and fixed my hair, "nothing, darling. how're you holding up?"

i shook my head. "i don't know." i said, my voice cracking.

"come here," she opened her arms.

i obliged and leaned into them for a hug. she ran her fingers through my hair. when we pulled away, she wiped some of her tears.

"okay, this isn't why i'm here. we're not going to cry and weep," she announced.

"um, why are you here, mom?" i asked.

my mother smiled at me, "you're powers, sweetheart. you're wonderful with them. you learn so quick." 

"thank you."

"well.. there is also something else..."

"what is it?" i asked, curious.

"but you're still in the denial phase. haven't even recognized it. so... we'll just fix you up." she muttered.

"what am i in denial about? what haven't i realized? and fix me? what do you mean fix—"

she held out her hand a little ball of light smacked into my forehead.

"ow," i muttered, rubbing my forehead.

"there we go," my mother said, pleased. "why don't you go check in the mirror." she said, pointing.

"okay.." i muttered.

i looked into the mirror she was pointing at, and gasped.

"woah." 

"that was a good woah, right?" she asked.

"yeah."

it didn't look like i was on a quest for the past few days. my hair was neatly tied into two dutch braids. my face was clean of grime, and grease. my freckles were a little darker, and they actually complimented my eyes. i didn't have any makeup on, but i looked really nice (any look is better than a quest look, trust me).

"alright, darling. time to go. you gotta make sure your boyfriend and my boyfriend don't try to kill each other." she ushered me out.

i didn't even have time to correct her, before i was rushed out of the back of the car.

percy and ares were arguing.

"why wait?" percy was saying, "i beat you once. how's that ankle healing up?"

ares grinned crookedly. "not bad, punk. but you got nothing on the master of taunts. i'll start the fight when i'm good and ready. until then... get lost."

he snapped his fingers and the world did a three-sixty, spinning in a cloud of red dust. percy and i fell to the ground.

i groaned, and percy gave me a hand up. when i stood up properly, the limousine was gone. the road, the taco restaurant, the whole town of gila claw was gone. the members of the quest were standing in the middle of the junkyard, mountains of scrap metal stretched out in every direction.

"who was the lady?" thalia asked immediately.

"my mom," i answered.

"what did she want with you?" bianca asked.

"at first she spoke to me about my dad. then, she complimented me on the use of my powers. after that, she said something about denial, and 'fixing me'. i understood none of it." i answered.

"what about thy father?" zoë asked.

i looked down, "he went missing yesterday. there was an attack and he was reported missing."

zoë nodded, and thalia put a hand on my shoulder sympathetically. i appreciated it.

"what about you?" grover asked percy.

"oh, uh, not sure," percy lied. "she said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. she said not to pick anything up."

i looked at him. i could tell when he was lying. he cleverly averted my gaze.

zoë 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 zoë," thalia said. "you can't trust aphrodite."

"i'm gonna pretend i didn't hear that," i muttered.

"so," percy said, anxiously, "how do we get out of here?"

"that way," zoë said, pointing. "that is west."

"how can you tell?"

she rolled her eyes at him, "ursa major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west."

she pointed west, then at the northern constellation. i looked at it. it was harder to spot the constellation because of all the other stars.

"oh, yeah," percy said. "the bear thing."

zoë looked offended. "show some respect. it was a fine bear. a worthy opponent."

"you act like it was real."

"guys," grover broke in. "look!"

we'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

"whoa," bianca said. "that stuff... some of it looks like real gold."

"it is," thalia said grimly. "like percy said, 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 broken on one side, as if it had been split by an axe. "you call this junk?"

he bit off a point and began to chew. "it's delicious!"

i swatted the crown out of his hands. "grover!" i chastised. "don't eat the junk!"

"look!" bianca said. she raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. she picked up a bow that glowed silver in moonlight. "a hunter's bow!"

she yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink, and became a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon. "it's just like percy's sword! and riley's weapons!"

zoë's face was grim. "leave it, bianca."

"but—"

"it is here for a reason. anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. it is defective. or cursed."

bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.

"i don't like this place," thalia said. she gripped the shaft of her spear.

"you think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" percy asked.

"don't be stupid, percy. obviously the computers are going to join together and annihilate us," i remarked.

thalia gave us a hard look. "zoë is right, guys. things get thrown away here for a reason. now come on, let's get across the yard."

"that's the second time you've agreed with zoë," percy muttered, but thalia ignored him.

we started picking our way through the hills and valleys of junk. the stuff seemed to go on forever, and if it hadn't been for ursa major, we would've gotten lost. all the hills pretty much looked the same.

confession time: we didn't leave the stuff alone. 

i mean, we tried, but there was too much cool junk not to check out some of it. percy found an electric guitar shaped like apollo's lyre. grover found a broken tree made out of metal. it had been chopped to pieces, but some of the branches still had golden birds in them, and they whirred around when grover picked them up, trying to flap their wings. i found a skateboard. there were band logos all around it. i probably would've tried it out, but the fact that thalia and zoë agreed twice was enough for me to put it back down.

finally, we saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of us, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. but between us and the road...

"what is that?" bianca gasped.

"gross," i muttered.

ahead of us was a hill much bigger and longer than the others. it was like a metal mesa, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. at one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together.

bianca frowned. "they look like—"

"toes," grover said.

i nodded. "really, really large toes. why are they so big?"

zoë and thalia exchanged nervous looks.

"let's go around," thalia said. "far around."

"but the road is right over there," percy protested. "quicker to climb over."

ping.

thalia hefted her spear, zoë drew her bow, and i flicked my hand out creating a whip of pink energy. that's when i realized it was only grover. he had thrown a piece of scrap metal at the toes and hit one, making a deep echo, as if the column were hollow.

"why did you do that?" zoë demanded.

grover cringed. "i don't know. i, uh, don't like fake feet?"

"come on." thalia looked at percy. "around."

percy didn't argue.

after several minutes of walking, we finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.

"we made it out," zoë said. "thank the gods."

at that moment, i heard a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal.

we whirled around. behind us, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. the ten toes tilted over, and i realized they didn't just look like toes. they were toes. the thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full greek battle armor. 

he was impossibly tall — a skyscraper with legs and arms. he gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. he looked down at us, and his face was deformed. the left side was partially melted off. his joints creaked with rust, and across his armored chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words 'wash me'.

"talos!" zoë gasped.

"who — who's talos?" percy stuttered.

"one of hephaestus's creations," i answered. i heard about the giant metal monster from beckendorf during shield forging. 

"but that can't be the original." thalia said. "it's too small. a prototype, maybe. a defective model."

he didn't like the word defective.

he moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. the sound of it coming out of its sheath was horrible, metal screeching against metal. the blade was a hundred feet long, easy. it looked rusty and dull, but that didn't matter. getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a giant battleship.

"someone took something," zoë 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."

before we could say anything the giant defective talos took one step toward us, closing half the distance and making the ground shake.

"run!" grover yelped.

now, although that idea was great for most monsters, it was not great for metal giants. at a leisurely stroll, this thing could outdistance us easily.

we split up, the way we'd done with the nemean lion. thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. the giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded in sparks and scattered across thalia's path.

zoë's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. grover brayed like a baby goat and went climbing up a mountain of metal. i followed him, and pulled my bow out. i tried shooting it with energy arrows, but they didn't do much.

talos moved towards a broken chariot. i saw percy and bianca rush away.

"hey, talos!" grover called.

talos didn't look at him.

grover played a quick melody on his reed pipes, and one of the poles, that talos crashed into, with power lines still attached to it came and struck him. the lines sparked and created a jolt of energy going up the giant's back.

talos whirled around.

grover and i ran in separate directions. talos swung his rusty sword, missing grover and i. but a bunch of scrap metal fell over grover, and i couldn't see him. the statue turned towards me. 

"shit," i muttered. i turned my bow back into a ring, and brought out two whips of energy. if i was going to go out, i'd do it in glory.

"no!" thalia yelled. she pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. the giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again.

thalia and i were keeping the monster occupied. we stayed close to it, but skirted around when it tried to kill us. it might have been big, but it was slow and stupid. 

bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.

zoë yelled, "what are you doing?"

"get it to raise its foot!" she said.

i wasn't sure what her plan was, but i shared a look with zoë and we both knew what to do. i took out my bow and we shot arrows toward the monster's face and they flew straight into one nostril. the giant straightened and shook its head.

"hey, junk boy!" percy yelled. "down here."

he ran up to its big toe and stabbed it with riptide. the magic blade cut a gash in the bronze.

talos looked down at percy and raised his foot to squash him. i didn't understand why he did it. he had to turn and run. the foot came down about two inches behind him and percy was knocked into the air. he'd been thrown into an olympian-air refrigerator.

the monster was about to finish him off, but grover somehow dug himself out of the junk pile. he played his pipes frantically, and his music sent another power line pole whacking against talos's thigh.

the monster turned. grover should've run, but he must've been too exhausted from the effort of so much magic. he took two steps, fell, and didn't get back up.

"grover!" percy, thalia, and i ran toward him, but i knew we'd be too late.

the monster raised his sword to smash grover. in a desperate effort i tried to raise a dome of protective pink energy around him. i'd never tried using my powers from this distance. but it worked. the monster looked down at the energy, but then got ready to swing his sword. then, talos froze.

talos cocked his head to one side, like someone had changed. he started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, doing the funky chicken. then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.

"go, bianca!" percy yelled.

zoë looked horrified. "she is inside?"

"how—" i couldn't finish the thought.

the monster staggered around, and i realized we were still in danger. percy and i grabbed grover and ran with him toward the highway. thalia came up behind us. zoë was already ahead of us. 

she yelled, "how will bianca get out?"

the giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. a shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines.

"no!" i yelled out.

"look out!" percy called at the same time, but it was too late.

the giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. i prayed the inside was insulated. there was no way to tell what was going on in there. the giant careened back into the junkyard, and his right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible clang!

his left arm came loose, too. he was falling apart at the joints.

talos began to run.

"wait!" zoë yelled. we ran after him, but there was no way we could keep up. pieces of the robot kept falling off, getting in our way. i pushed away a bunch of pieces with my powers.

the giant crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed.

when we reached the wreckage we searched frantically, yelling bianca's name. we crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. we searched until the sun started to rise, but no luck.

zoe sat down and wept.

thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giant's smashed face.

i looked at my wristband. "wake up, J. heat signatures. scan through the wreckage. give me something, come on." i asked desperately.

"negative," my a.i. responded.

i fell next to zoë. a few tears escaped me. i never even got a chance to be her friend. i never got a chance to tell her i understood her decision to join the hunters. 

nico. gods, nico!

he would be heartbroken. what was i supposed to say to him?

zoë looked at me. i realized she needed comfort. i put an arm around her. she didn't pull away. she rested her head on my shoulder and silently wept.

"we can keep searching," percy said. "it's light now. we'll find her."

i shook my head.

"no we won't," grover said miserably. "it happened just as it was supposed to."

"what are you talking about?" percy demanded.

he looked up at me with big watery eyes. "the prophecy. one shall he lost in the land without rain."

it happened exactly how it was going to.

here we were in the desert. and bianca di angelo was gone.

REY WRITES !

thanks for reading !

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