11. THEO

Theo had been in some horrible positions before, but she thought this one took the cake.

Not only had she and Percy been caught about two seconds into their stupid plan, but Theo had already ruined the demigods' chances to win. Her blood had spilled. Gaea had bloodshed from the girl; all she needed was one more drop from any of the boys, and she would succeed.

Theo's head was spinning. She couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. Blood kept dripping from the gash on the back of her thigh, and of course the wound itself was pretty damn painful. At least it wasn't on her bad leg; she would have collapsed already from the pain.

But she wasn't in the giant princess's grasp anymore. She had been freed from that sweaty armpit hell. She tried to gather her surroundings. Was May really goading the giants to all fight her at once? Or was Theo hallucinating again?

When the Argo II appeared in the sky, and a white bolt of lightning exploded everything in Theo's sight, she decided that this had to have been real. And thank the gods for her friends' punctuality.

For the next three minutes, life was great. So much happened at once that only an ADHD demigod could have kept track.

Jason fell on King Porphyrion with such force that the giant crumpled to his knees—blasted with lightning and stabbed in the neck with a golden gladius.

Frank unleashed a hail of arrows, driving back the giants nearest to Percy.

The Argo II rose above the ruins and all the ballistae and catapults fired simultaneously. Leo must have programmed the weapons with surgical precision. A wall of Greek fire roared upward all around the Parthenon. It didn't touch the interior, but in a flash most of the smaller monsters around it were incinerated.

Leo's voice boomed over the loudspeaker: "SURRENDER! YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY ONE SPANKING HOT WAR MACHINE!"

The giant Enceladus howled in outrage. "Valdez!"

"WHAT'S UP, ENCHILADAS?" Leo's voice roared back. "NICE ROCK IN YOUR FOREHEAD."

"GAH!" The giant pulled May's stone out of his head. "Monsters: destroy that ship!"

The remaining forces tried their best. A flock of gryphons rose to attack. Festus the figurehead blew flames and chargrilled them out of the sky. A few Earthborn launched a volley of rocks, but from the sides of the hull a dozen Archimedes spheres sprayed out, intercepting the boulders and blasting them to dust.

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" the Coach Hedge hologram ordered.

Hazel spurred Arion off the colonnade and they leaped into battle. The forty-foot fall would have broken any other horse's legs, but Arion hit the ground running. Hazel zipped from giant to giant, stinging them with the blade of her spatha.

With extremely bad timing, Kekrops and his snake people chose that moment to join the fight. In four or five places around the ruins, the ground turned to green goo and armed gemini burst forth, Kekrops himself in the lead.

"Kill the demigods!" he hissed. "Kill the tricksters!"

Before many of his warriors could follow, Hazel pointed her blade at the nearest tunnel. The ground rumbled. All the gooey membranes popped and the tunnels collapsed, billowing plumes of dust. Kekrops looked around at his army, now reduced to six guys.

"SLITHER AWAY!" he ordered.

Frank's arrows cut them down as they tried to retreat.

Percy was back on his feet, Riptide once again in his hands. He still looked dazed. His nose was bleeding. But he seemed to be standing his ground against the old giant Thoon, who had somehow reattached his hand and found his meat cleaver.

The giantess Periboia had thawed with alarming speed. She tried to grab Theo, but, despite her bad legS, Theo was holding her own, if she did say so herself. The giants had disarmed her of her weapons, so Theo took to defense and led her in a deadly game of tag around the throne.

"Come get me!" Theo exclaimed, hustling quicker on her feet than she ever had. She glanced back to see Periboia's meaty hands outstretched, trying to grab Theo. She ducked to the left and Periboia stumbled forward with momentum. "Uh oh! You can't! Hah!"

For a moment, Theo was elated. Despite her earlier fault at letting her blood spill, she and her friends were actually winning.

But too soon the element of their surprise faded. The giants overcame their confusion, and Theo's leg tricked her with pain. She lost footing and hit the ground with a grunt, the air leaving her lungs at the force.

Frank ran out of arrows. He changed into a rhinoceros and leaped into battle, but as fast as he could knock down the giants they got up again. Their wounds seemed to be healing faster.

Theo had lost ground against Periboia. Hazel was knocked out of her saddle at sixty miles an hour. Jason summoned another lightning strike, but this time Porphyrion simply deflected it off the tip of his spear.

The giants were bigger, stronger and more numerous. They couldn't be killed without the help of the gods. And they didn't seem to be tiring.

The six demigods were forced into a defensive ring.

Another volley of Earthborn rocks hit the Argo II. This time Leo couldn't return fire fast enough. Rows of oars were sheared off. The ship shuddered and tilted in the sky.

Then Enceladus threw his fiery spear. It pierced the ship's hull and exploded inside, sending spouts of fire through the oar openings. An ominous black cloud billowed from the deck. The Argo II began to sink.

"Leo!" Jason cried.

Porphyrion laughed. "You demigods have learned nothing. There are no gods to aid you. We need only one more thing from you to make our victory complete."

The giant king smiled expectantly. He seemed to be looking at Percy Jackson.

Theo looked over. Percy's nose was still bleeding. He seemed unaware that a trickle of blood had made its way down his face to the end of his chin.

"Percy—" cried Theo, but it happened all too quickly.

A single drop of blood fell from his chin. It hit the ground between his feet and sizzled like water on a frying pan.

The blood of Olympus watered the ancient stones.

The Acropolis groaned and shifted as the Earth Mother woke.

Theo had died plenty of times for a living person, but she had never experienced her life flashing before her eyes until now.

Standing with her friends in a defensive ring, surrounded by giants, then looking up at an impossible vision in the sky—Theo could very clearly picture herself fifty years in the future.

She was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of a house somewhere on the coast. Percy was sipping a glass of blue lemonade. His hair was grey. Deep lines etched the corners of his eyes, but he was still as handsome as ever. Their grandchildren sat around Percy and Theo's feet, and she was trying to explain to them what had happened on this day in Athens.

No, I'm serious, she said. Just six demigods on the ground and one more in a burning ship above the Acropolis. We were surrounded by thirty-foot-tall giants who were about to kill us. Then the sky opened up and the gods descended!

Granny, the kids said, you are full of it.

I'm not! she protested. The Olympian gods came charging out of the heavens on their war chariots, trumpets blaring, swords flaming. And your great-great-grandfather, the king of the gods, led the charge, a javelin of pure electricity crackling in his hand!

Her grandkids laughed at her. And Percy glanced over, smiling, like Would you believe it, if you hadn't been there?

But Theo was there. She looked up as the clouds parted over the Acropolis, and she could hardly believe her own eyes. Instead of blue skies, she saw black space spangled with stars, the palaces of Mount Olympus gleaming silver and gold in the background. And an army of gods charged down from on high.

It was too much to process. And it was probably better for her health that she didn't see it all. Only later would Theo be able to remember bits and pieces.

There was supersized Zeus, riding into battle in a golden chariot, a lightning bolt the size of a telephone pole crackling in one hand. Pulling his chariot were four horses made of wind, each constantly shifting from equine to human form, trying to break free. For a split second, one took on the icy visage of Boreas. Another wore Notus's swirling crown of fire and steam. A third flashed the smug lazy smile of Zephyrus. Zeus had bound and harnessed the four wind gods themselves.

On the underbelly of the Argo II, the glass bay doors split open. The goddess Nike tumbled out, free from her golden net. She spread her glittering wings and soared to Zeus's side, taking her rightful place as his charioteer.

"MY MIND IS RESTORED!" she roared. "VICTORY TO THE GODS!"

At Zeus's left flank rode Hera, her chariot pulled by enormous peacocks, their rainbow-coloured plumage so bright it gave Theo the spins.

Ares bellowed with glee as he thundered down on the back of a fire-breathing horse. His spear glistened red.

In the last second, before the gods reached the Parthenon, they seemed to displace themselves, like they'd jumped through hyperspace. The chariots disappeared. Suddenly Theo and her friends were surrounded by the Olympians, now human-sized, tiny next to the giants, but glowing with power.

Theo did the only thing she thought appropriate: She screamed and charged Porphyrion.

Her friends joined in the carnage.

The fighting ranged all over the Parthenon and spilled across the Acropolis. Out of the corner of her eye, Theo saw May fighting Enceladus. At her side stood a woman with long dark hair and golden armour over her white robes. The goddess thrust her spear at the giant, then brandished her shield with the fearsome bronzed visage of Medusa. Together, Athena and Mayfair drove Enceladus back into the nearest wall of metal scaffolding, which collapsed on top of him.

On the opposite side of the temple, Frank Zhang and the god Ares smashed through an entire phalanx of giants—Ares with his spear and shield, Frank (as an African elephant) with his trunk and feet. The war god laughed and stabbed and disembowelled like a kid destroying piñatas.

Hazel raced through the battle on Arion's back, disappearing in the Mist whenever a giant came close, then appearing behind him and stabbing him in the back. The goddess Hecate danced in her wake, setting fire to their enemies with two blazing torches. Theo didn't see Hades, but whenever a giant stumbled and fell the ground broke open and the giant was snapped up and swallowed.

Percy battled the giant twins, Otis and Ephialtes, while at his side fought a bearded man with a trident and a loud Hawaiian shirt. The twin giants stumbled. Poseidon's trident morphed into a fire hose, and the god sprayed the giants out of the Parthenon with a high-powered blast in the shape of wild horses.

Jason was maybe the most impressive. He and his father faced the giant king with equal strength and power: Theo couldn't tell who was doing the heavy work. Porphyrion was trying to hold his own, but all he could manage was a whirlwind of swipes, jabs, and slashes. Jason and Zeus glowed with mightiness.

As for Leo, he was racing across the deck of the Argo II, shooting ballistae, dropping hammers on the giants' heads and blowtorching their loincloths. Behind him at the helm, a burly bearded guy in a mechanic's uniform was tinkering with the controls, furiously trying to keep the ship aloft.

The strangest sight was the old giant Thoon, who was getting bludgeoned to death by three old ladies with brass clubs—the Fates, armed for war. Theo decided there was nothing in the world scarier than a gang of bat-wielding grannies.

And Theo's father.... he appeared in a gleam of light, like the sun had come out from behind the clouds and thus Apollo was present. He didn't say anything to Theo—hardly looked at her, in fact—but he tossed something to her and she caught it without thinking.

Her bow. She felt ten times better with it in her hands—more comfortable. It was familiar, fighting with a bow and arrow. Even the wound on the back of her leg felt better. She had no idea where Apollo had found her weapon, but she didn't have time to ask, because Periboia was approaching.

Theo ignored the throbbing from both of her legs as she continued her fight with Periboia, this time with the help of her father. Theo ducked and rolled and shot arrows faster than she ever had before. It was easier to fire on the giant: she moved five times slower than Theo could. Whenever Periboia tried to strike, she was distracted by a gleaming ray of sun blinding her eyesight.

"There is no throne for you," Theo said, rolling a few feet back from Periboia to catch her breath. She kept an arrow pointed at her. "Not here. Not anywhere. It belongs to the Olympians."

"To the Olympians," Apollo echoed, his tone more serious than Theo had ever heard. He looked like a gladiator; the sweat on his forehead glistening in the sun, his eyes glowing with power, his aura radiating around him. Theo realized she had never seen him in battle before. Not like this. She could understand how others thought of him as intimidating now. "The giants will fall, just as they have all other times before."

"You cannot stop us," Periboia sneered. "It is done. Blood has been spilled! The Earth Mother is awake!"

Theo really didn't want to hear that. Between knowing she was the one whose blood awoke Gaea and the fact that this giant had crushed Theo's ribs when she was clutching her, Theo was feeling pretty down on her luck.

So she fired an arrow through Periboia's forehead and sentenced her to dust.

Nothing was left of the giants except heaps of ash, a few spears and some burning dreadlocks.

The Argo II was still aloft, barely, moored to the top of the Parthenon. Half the ship's oars were broken off or tangled. Smoke streamed from several large splits in the hull. The sails were peppered with burning holes.

Leo looked almost as bad. He stood in the midst of the temple with the other crewmembers, his face covered in soot, his clothes smoldering.

The gods fanned out in a semicircle as Zeus approached. None of them seemed particularly joyful about their victory.

Hera and Poseidon were having an intense discussion with another goddess in green and gold robes—perhaps Demeter. Nike tried to put a golden laurel wreath on Hecate's head, but the goddess of magic swatted it away. Hermes sneaked close to Athena, attempting to put his arm around her. Athena turned her aegis shield his way and Hermes scuffled off.

The only Olympian who seemed in a good mood was Ares. He laughed and pantomimed gutting an enemy while Frank listened, his expression polite but queasy.

"Brethren," Zeus said, "we are healed, thanks to the work of these demigods. The ruins of the Apollo Belvedere now lie at Camp Half-Blood. It has united our offspring, and thus our own essences."

"Lord Zeus," May spoke up, "is Reyna okay? Nico and Coach Hedge?"

Theo couldn't quite believe May was asking after Reyna's health, but it made her glad. She wanted to ask about Camp Half-blood, too, but something caught her tongue.

Zeus knitted his cloud-coloured eyebrows. "They succeeded in their mission. As of this moment they are alive. Whether or not they are okay—"

"There is still work to be done," Queen Hera interrupted. She spread her arms like she wanted a group hug. "But my heroes... you have triumphed over the giants as I knew you would. My plan succeeded beautifully."

Zeus turned on his wife. Thunder shook the Acropolis. "Hera, do not dare take credit! You have caused at least as many problems as you've fixed!'

The queen of heaven blanched. "Husband, surely you see now—this was the only way."

"There is never only one way!" Zeus bellowed. "That is why there are three Fates, not one. Is this not so?"

By the ruins of the giant king's throne, the three old ladies silently bowed their heads in recognition. Theo noticed that the other gods stayed well away from the Fates and their gleaming brass clubs.

"Please, husband." Hera tried for a smile, but she was so clearly frightened that Theo thought somebody could have felt sorry for her. Not Theo, of course, but somebody. "I only did what I—"

"Silence!" Zeus snapped. "You disobeyed my orders. Nevertheless... I recognize that you acted with honest intentions. The valor of these seven heroes has proven that you were not entirely without wisdom."

Hera looked like she wanted to argue, but she kept her mouth shut.

"Apollo, however..." Zeus glared into the shadows where the twins were standing. "My son, come here."

Apollo inched forward like he was walking the plank. Now that the battle was over, his gladiator-esque look had evaporated. He looked so much like a teenage demigod it was unnerving—no more than seventeen, wearing jeans and a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt (Theo only noticed now that she and her father were twinning, almost to the bone) with a bow over his shoulder and a sword at his belt. With his tousled blond hair and blue eyes, he might've been Jason's brother on the mortal side as well as the godly side.

Theo couldn't tell what to think of him. She thought of how pathetic he had acted back on Delos, how miserable he had made her feel. She couldn't tell if the pitiable look in his eyes was on purpose to make him seem more innocent to Zeus. The fear in Apollo's face certainly looked real, and also very human.

The Three Fates gathered around the god, circling him, their withered hands raised.

"Twice you have defied me," Zeus said.

Apollo wet his lips. "My—my lord—"

"You neglected your duties. You succumbed to flattery and vanity. You encouraged your descendant Octavian to follow his dangerous path, and you prematurely revealed a prophecy that may yet destroy us all."

"But—"

"Enough!" Zeus boomed. "We will speak of your punishment later. For now, you will wait on Olympus."

Zeus flicked his hand, and Apollo turned into a cloud of glitter. The Fates swirled around him, dissolving into air, and the glittery whirlwind shot into the sky. Theo parted her lips, but she was unsure of what she would have said if she'd gotten the words out in time.

"What will happen to him?" she asked.

The gods stared at her, but she didn't care. She was furious with her father, of course, but she didn't much like the idea of him being exiled from Olympus, either.

"It is not your concern," Zeus said. "We have other problems to address."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the Parthenon.

It didn't feel right to let the matter go. Honestly, Theo didn't see how Apollo deserved to be singled out for punishment.

Someone must take the blame, Zeus had said.

But why?

"Father," Jason said, "I made a vow to honor all the gods. I promised Kymopoleia that once this war is over none of the gods would be without shrines at the camps."

Zeus scowled. "That's fine. But... Kym who?"

Poseidon coughed into his fist. "She's one of mine."

"My point," Jason said, "is that blaming each other isn't going to solve anything. That's how the Romans and Greeks got divided in the first place."

The air became dangerously ionized. Theo's scalp tingled. She realized Jason was risking his father's wrath. He might get turned into glitter or blasted off the Acropolis. But he was defending Theo's father.

"Apollo wasn't the problem. To punish him for Gaea waking is—" he stopped himself like he wanted to say stupid, but caught himself — "unwise."

"Unwise." Zeus's voice was almost a whisper. "Before the assembled gods, you would call me unwise."

Theo glanced at her friends, all on high alert. Percy looked like he was ready to jump in and fight at Jason's side.

Then Artemis stepped out of the shadows. "Father, this hero has fought long and hard for our cause. His nerves are frayed. We should take that into account. Surely, Father, we should attend to our more pressing problems, as you pointed out."

"Gaea," May chimed in, clearly anxious to change the topic. "She's awake, isn't she?"

Zeus turned towards her. Around Theo and Jason, the air molecules stopped humming. Theo's skull felt like it had just come out of the microwave.

"That is correct," Zeus said. "The blood of Olympus was spilled. She is fully conscious."

"Oh, come on!" Percy complained. "I get a little nosebleed and I wake up the entire earth? That's not fair!"

Athena shouldered her aegis. "Complaining of unfairness is like assigning blame, Percy Jackson. It does no one any good. Now you must move quickly. Gaea rises to destroy your camp."

Poseidon leaned on his trident. "For once, Athena is right."

"For once?" Athena protested.

"Why would Gaea be back at camp?" Leo asked. "Percy's nosebleed was here."

"Dude," Percy said, "first off, you heard Athena—don't blame my nose. Second, Gaea's the earth. She can pop up anywhere she wants. Besides, she told us she was going to do this. She said the first thing on her to-do list was destroying our camp. Question is: how do we stop her?"

Frank looked at Zeus. "Um, sir, Your Majesty, can't you gods just pop over there with us? You've got the chariots and the magic powers and whatnot."

"Yes!" Hazel said. "We defeated the giants together in two seconds. Let's all go—"

"No," Zeus said flatly.

"No?" Jason asked. "But, Father—"

Zeus's eyes sparked with power, and Theo thought Jason had pushed his dad as far as he could for today... and maybe for the next few centuries.

"That's the problem with prophecies," Zeus growled. "When Apollo allowed the Prophecy of Seven to be spoken, and when Hera took it upon herself to interpret the words, the Fates wove the future in such a way that it had only so many possible outcomes, so many solutions. Some phrases may even be incorrect. You seven, the demigods, are destined to defeat Gaea. We, the gods, cannot."

Theo could have pulled her hair out of her head. "Are you seriously saying that the Great Prophecy might be... wrong?"

Zeus glanced over to Theo like she was no more than a piece of gum stuck to his shoe. "Of course, if it was translated improperly, it was due to your father, young girl. You and he are too similar for you to scorn him."

Theo fell silent. She had never really been struck speechless before, but right now, she genuinely couldn't open her mouth.

Frank shuffled uncomfortably, like he missed being an elephant. "So... how can we possibly get to Camp Half-Blood in time to save it? It took us months to reach Greece."

"The winds," Jason said. "Father, can't you unleash the winds to send our ship back?"

Zeus glowered. "I could slap you back to Long Island."

"Um, was that a joke, or a threat, or—"

"No," Zeus said, "I mean it quite literally. I could slap your ship back to Camp Half-Blood, but the force involved..."

Over by the ruined giant throne, the grungy god in the mechanic's uniform shook his head. "My boy Leo built a good ship, but it won't sustain that kind of stress. It would break apart as soon as it arrived, maybe sooner."

Leo straightened his tool belt. "The Argo II can make it. It only has to stay in one piece long enough to get us back home. Once there, we can abandon ship."

"Dangerous," warned Hephaestus. "Perhaps fatal."

The goddess Nike twirled a laurel wreath on her finger. "Victory is always dangerous. And it often requires sacrifice. Leo Valdez and I have discussed this." She stared pointedly at Leo.

Theo didn't like that. She wasn't sure if Nike knew about the same plan Leo had told Theo, but either way, it unsettled her to hear such a direct message from any of the gods.

"Leo," May said, "what is Nike talking about?"

Leo waved off the question. "The usual. Victory. Sacrifice. Blah, blah, blah. Doesn't matter. We can do this, guys. We have to do this."

A feeling of dread settled over Theo. She thought Zeus was correct about one thing: the worst was yet to come.

Jason inhaled a sharp, steadying breath. "Leo's right. All aboard for one last trip."

Percy and Theo shared a glance, and he sighed heavily. "Fine. But I am not taking any more shit about my nose."

Via Chatter

The gods are so toxic and manipulative like if the seven could just handle everything on their own I feel like they would be a lot better off tbh do u get me

also if you squint TRIALS OF APOLLO REFERENCE!!!!! Let me know should I continue onto toa or leave Pertheo alone after this book