The sun dawned bright and early and very, very dry as the demigods (plus Grover and Zoë) set out into the divine junkyard of possible death.

Thalia had spent a few nights in junkyards before, when she was on the run with Luke and Annabeth. She was pretty sure that they typically weren't this big. Or full of weapons. Or occupied by the contant, suffocating, ominous feeling that something bad was about to happen.

However, the group was quickly distracted.

"Whoa," Bianca gasped. She had picked up an intricate brooch. When she unpinned it, it extended into a long bow. "Zoë, look! A Hunter's bow!"

Zoë glanced over. "Leave it," she said sternly.

Bianca gingerly set it down.

After that find, all of the questers seemed to discover a sudden interest in dumpster diving.

Zedaph discovered a crate that exploded with glitter when opened. Percy found a damaged wooden carving of an owl that bit his finger and fluttered away, which seemed to make him sad. Grover found a set of Celestial Bronze panpipes that made a metallic sound when played.

Thalia herself found a lot of cool stuff that she didn't need like a shield shaped like a figure eight, an abandoned duffel bag containing a judge's gavel and a Ronald McDonald plush, a bronze humanoid robot slumped over with one flickering eye, and a broken-down chariot complete with sparking automation horses.

"Tango would love this place," Zedaph observed.

"He would," Percy agreed.

Grover picked up a beautiful golden crown that looked like it had been split with an axe. there was blood staining one side of it, but that didn't stop him from taking a bite out of the clean part. "Ooh! Delicious!"

"Leave it," Zoë ordered again. "Everything here is here for a reason. It is cursed. Or dysfunctional."

"Cursed and dysfunctional, story of my life," Percy said dreamily. "And Thalia's life."

"Maybe you belong here," Thalia told him.

"Maybe we both belong here."

"...Nah, just you. You're more dysfunctional."

Percy scoffed in mock offense. "Excuse me? Grover is even more dysfunctional than I am!"

Grover looked back at them, wounded, a piece of scrap metal comedically inches from his mouth. "Hey!"

"It's okay, Grover, he just meant you're a little bit silly," Zedaph said.

Bianca laughed a little. Zoë glared at them.

Thalia took it as a challenge and glared back.

The rest of the trip through the junkyard went (mostly) without incident. Of course, there was one time where Zedaph tried to activate some sort of machine made of slime, stone, and red dust, but they quickly steered him away from it.

Finally, they stepped back onto a road.

"We are out!" Zedaph cheered. "That wasn't so bad!"

His smile faded. "Do you hear that-?"

Thalia heard it too - the strange rumbling from behind them, like one of the mountains of junk suddenly decided to get up and walk.

She wasn't far from the truth.

She wasn't far from the truth at all.

All six questers turned and went pale. Thalia's inner Greek Mythology Archive - admittedly mostly gathered via memes - sent a name to her mind.

Talos.

Zoë said it before she did, though. Curse her. "Talos!"

"The real one?" Zedaph yelped.

"Can't be, not big enough," Thalia said, taking out Aegis.

"Not big enough?" Grover bleated. "It looks plenty big to me!"

Percy yanked him out of the way of the giant's massive foot.

"Fire!" Zoë called, and four arrows zipped towards the metal giant. They were arrows, so naturally, they did nothing. What was Zoë thinking? Thalia had to admit that it was pretty cool that she and Bianca could shoot two arrows at once, though.

"That was useless," Bianca observed, lowering her bow.

Talos turned towards the two Hunters.

"Flee!' Zoë ordered, and she and Bianca ran.

"Who says flee?" Zedaph yelped. "Just say run!"

"Tango says flee," Percy supplied. "Flee with extra flee."

"Now is not the time to be discussing my choices of language," Zoë growled, dodging another stomp. Talos looked disappointed and moved over towards Percy, Thalia, and Grover.

The questers spread out and attacked from all sides. Metal hit metal, echoing through the junkyard in a cacophany worthy of the forge at Camp Half-Blood, but nothing worked, and everyone had to move out of the way eventually before they got stomped on. Even Aegis was useless against an emotionless bronze robot that couldn't feel fear.

Thalia raised her spear and felt lightning crackle through it to strike Talos. With it came that familiar feeling of power. Invincibility. She supposed this was what gods felt like, and it was times like this that she couldn't blame them for ignoring mortals. With power like this, who wouldn't?

Then again, she was pretty sure the gods didn't get the wave of exhaustion that washed over her when she used the lightning.

She didn't manage to see if it did anything. She was too busy ducking into the remains of a bronze truck to regain her composure.

What would they do if they couldn't defeat this thing? Run? Talos didn't seem like something they would easily outrun.

All she knew was that she would not go down so easily.

However, as soon as she stepped out of the truck, spear in hand, the machinery of Talos let out a massive groan.

Had she done that?

No, she couldn't have.

The giant stumbled, sparks racing up its body. The glow in its eyes flickered and went dark. Finally, the entire thing crashed forward.

Thalia dove out of the way. She was almost too slow. A chunk of metal fell on her shield, jarring her arm and almost causing her to drop it but she managed to keep it on. She had never been more thankful for Aegis.

And then... silence.

Thalia looked up from the cover of her shield. There was Percy, staring at the rubble, dumbstruck. There was Zoë,  picking up an arrow. There was Grover, digging a bruised and battered Zedaph out of a pile of scrap metal.

We're missing someone.

Where's Bianca?

Thalia ran over to meet the others. Zedaph was limping. "Where-" she started.

Percy looked at her. A bronze figurine was clutched so tightly in his hand that his knuckles were white, and his face was the same color. His expression was somewhere between shock and despair.

He looked at Zoë, although he didn't really seem to see her. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I tried to stop her, but she just- she just went- the maintenance trapdoor under its foot-"

"No," Zoë interrupted stubbornly. "We will search. Surely she is alive."

"Yeah," Thalia agreed, setting aside her rivalry with the Lieutenant of Artemis for the moment. "If we're fast-"

Grover and Zedaph, the latter of whom was leaning heavily on the former, both nodded in agreement.

Percy shook his head. He knew.

They all knew.

It didn't hurt, really. It was just... numb. Thalia hadn't known her well enough for it to hurt. She regretted that now.

After all, Bianca had just barely found her place, her people. She was still brand-new to this demigod thing. And demigods never did last very long, but...

One shall be lost in the land without rain.

How was one supposed to accept that she was already dead?

~~~

A/N Soooo... Hi guys :3

I am in fact alive. CHB is off hiatus, yay! But don't get your hopes up cause updates are still gonna be slow. I'm not quite motivated yet, but I figured six months was a long time lol. I've been watching Hermitcraft more and reading Percy Jackson so that is definitely helping.

Aaaanyway. I know that Bianca's death may not have been as... emotional as it was in the original pjo books or even as angsty as previous chapters. Sorry about that. I have been writing so much fluff lately about this lil quartet of ocs who go around world hopping it's pretty great. I'm slightly out of practice with angst. Oops

Anyway sorry for long rambly authors note it is 10:30 PM I'm tired and I'm supposed to be getting ready for bed so ye hope this was better than that pathetic excuse for a Grian chapter that I unpublished lol

- Indigo

PS. I refuse to apologize for April Fools. The comments were freaking hilarious.