CHAPTER   FIFTY
FINLEY   BRIGGS

Finn was tired of wine.

If she said that loud, she would probably get kicked out of Bacchus's Junior Party Scouts, but she didn't care.

She didn't want to be covered in dried wine, her hair a mess and her clothes stained. She didn't want to keep envisioning Jason in her mind, almost drowning from suffocating on the substance—the substance that was known to be all that Finn was. Above all, she didn't want to be here at all. She wanted to go back to the surface.

Hence why she was absolutely not a fan of the morals this quest was giving her.

If it was up to who she was only three weeks ago, Finn would have succumbed to her urges. But they didn't know where Sylvie was. Frank, Hazel, Annabeth, and Leo were missing in action. They still had to save Nico di Angelo, assuming the guy wasn't already dead. And there was that little matter of the giants destroying Rome, waking Gaea, and taking over the world.

Percy took the lead as they crawled down the drainage pipe. After thirty feet, it opened into a wider tunnel. Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn. 

The corridor opened into a vast room with twenty-foot ceilings and rows of support columns. Gears and pulley systems raised and lowered sections of the floor. Water flowed through open trenches, powering waterwheels that turned some of the machines. Other machines were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds inside.

Suspended from the ceiling were cages of live animals—a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas, and even an eight-headed hydra. Ancient-looking bronze and leather conveyor belts trundled along with stacks of weapons and armor in a disorganized manner. 

Leo would love it, Finn thought. The whole room was like one massive, scary, unreliable machine.

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 room.

Jason murmured, "What the heck?"

"Language," Piper teased. Finn snorted.

They stepped inside. Finn scanned the room. There were several thousand things to look at, most of them in motion, but fortunately, Finn was a daughter of Bacchus, so she was comfortable with chaos. 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." She 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 started across the room, picking his way around conveyor belts and moving platforms.

Finn tried to watch out for traps, but everything here looked like a trap. She really wished Hazel were here so she could help with her underground skills.

They jumped over a water trench and ducked under a row of caged wolves—which deeply upset Jason. They had made it about halfway to the bronze jar when the ceiling opened over them. A platform lowered. Standing on it like an actor, with one hand raised and his head high, was the purple-haired giant Ephialtes.

He was small by giant standards—about twelve feet tall—but he had tried to make up for it with his loud outfit. He was wearing a Hawaiin shirt that even Bacchus would've found vulgar. His hair was braided with gold and silver coins. He had a ten-foot spear strapped to his back, and 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.

Ephialtes smiled at the demigods like he was really, really pleased to see them.

"At last!" he bellowed. "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!"

Finn's friends closed around the sides of her. Having them there made her feel a little better. These were the banes of her father, and there was no doubt in Finn's mind they'd especially be after her. Not with her luck. Not when Ephialtes's eyes danced with a crazy light, just like Finn's.

"We're here," Percy said, a dark stubbornness in his gaze. "Now let our friend go."

"Of course!" Ephilates 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?"

Otis looked like the world's largest, grumpiest ballet dancer. He wore a skin-tight baby-bue leotard that Finn really wished left more to the imagination. A diamond tiara was nestled in his green, firecracker-braided hair. He looked glum and miserably uncomfortable, but he managed a dancer's bow.

"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 while the Armageddon is going on." He raised his eyebrows hopefully at the demigods. "I have some extra costumes—"

"We'll pass," Finn interjected, judgment lacing her tone.

In unison, the giants faced Finn. Ephialtes's anger fell at once. They grinned at her so insanely that even Finn felt herself grow unsettled. Her friends stepped closer to her.

"Why, Finley Briggs," Ephialtes mused. "We've been waiting for your arrival!"

"Oh, yes!" Otis nodded. "Daughter of that awful wine god! We'll make him pay for everything he did to us, starting with you! Then he'll see where he went wrong."

"Uh-huh," Finn nodded, face blank. "Now, about Nico..."

"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 Finn gasp. She couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead. But Ephialtes stood in the way, so they couldn't check.

"Now we have to hurry," said Ephialtes. "We should go through your stage directions. The hypogeum is all set!"

Jason raised his golden gladius. "We're not going to be part of any show," he said. "And what's a hypo—whatever-you-call-it?"

"Hypogeum," Finn corrected, surprisingly. "It's the area under a coliseum. Not even a big deal. Just housed all the set pieces and machinery used to create special effects."

Ephialtes scowled. "Of course you would know, your father's the god of theater."

"She insults us." Otis frowned. "She thinks she knows so much because she can act. I bet she can't even dance!"

"Not important!" Ephialtes scolded. "At any rate, you insulting girl, this hypogeum is much more than the stageworks for a coliseum. Otis and I have been imprisoned under Rome for eons, but we've kept busy building our very own hypogeum. Now we're ready to create the greatest spectacle Rome has ever seen—and the last!"

At Otis's feet, Nico shuddered. At least he was alive. Now they just had to defeat the giants, preferably without destroying the city of Rome, and get out of here to find their friends.

"So!" Finn said, hoping to keep the giants' attention on her. "You'll get revenge on my father by killing me ruthlessly, you said?"

"Yes!" Ephialtes cheered. "Now, I know the bounty stipulates that you should be kept alive if possible, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity of the wine god's daughter being thrown at our feet!"

"Yeah, I'm Bacchus's daughter, you mentioned that already."

"So much sass," Ephialtes grumbled, displeased. "We'll be glad to kill you. I hope you don't mind if we deviate from the plan. Gaea wants too much! You alive, him alive," he nodded to Percy, "the Sylvie girl gone. Luckily, she's already doomed, so the Earth Mother will too happy about that to care what we do!"

Percy's knees buckled, and Finn had to stabilize him. He tried swallowing, but his throat was so dry that he choked. "Already doomed. You don't mean she's—"

"Dead?" the giant asked. "No. Not yet. But don't worry! We've got your other friends locked up, you see."

Piper made a strangled sound. "Leo and Annabeth? Hazel and Frank?"

"Those are the ones," Ephialtes agreed. "So we can use them for the sacrifice. The Demeter girl will die, which will please Her Ladyship. That way, we can get revenge on Finley Briggs here, and use you other 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."

Piper stepped forward. Somehow she managed a sweet smile. "I've got a better idea," she told the giants. "Why don't you let us go? That would be an incredible twist. Wonderful entertainment value, and it would prove to the world how cool you are."

Nico stirred. Otis looked down at her him. His snaky feet flicked their tongues at Nico's head.

"Plus!" Piper said quickly. "Plus, we could do some dance moves as we're escaping. Perhaps a ballet number!"

Otis forgot all about Nico. He lumbered over and wagged his finger at Ephialtes. "You see? That's what I was telling you! It would be incredible!"

For a second, Finn thought Piper was going to pull it off. Otis looked at his brother imploringly. Ephialtes tugged at his chin as if considering the idea.

At last he shook his head. "No... No, I'm afraid not. You see, my girl, I am the anti-Dionysus. I have a reputation to uphold. Dionysus thinks he knows parties? He's wrong! His revels are tame compared to what I can do."

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."

Finn glanced over at Nico, who was just starting to move. She wanted him to be at least conscious enough to crawl out of the way when the fighting started. And Finn needed more information from the giants about Sylvie, and where her other friends were being kept.

"Maybe," Finn ventured, "you should bring our other friends here. You know, spectacular deaths... the more the merrier, right?"

"Hmm." Ephialted fiddled with a button on his Hawaiin shirt. "No! It's really too late to change the choreography. But never fear. The circuses will be marvelous! The four of you will die in agony, up above, where all the gods and mortals can watch. But that's just the opening ceremony! 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 1st 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!"

"Uh..." Percy shifted the Wonder bread from hand to hand. "I still think the letting us go idea is better."

"He's right," Piper tried again. "Otherwise we get into this whole confrontation thing. We fight you. You fight us. We wreck your plans. You know, we've defeated a lot of giants lately."

Finn nodded, forcing sincerity. "Enceladus, Alcyoneus, Polybotes," she listed. "We'd hate for things to get out of control."

Ephialtes nodded thoughtfully. "You're right."

Finn and Piper blinked. "We are?"

"We can't let things get out of control," the giant agreed. "But that won't be a problem, since we have choreographed your deaths so perfectly. You'll love it. And even if you don't, you have no gods with you, and that's the only way you could hope to triumph. So really, it would be more sensible to die painfully. Sorry, but the show must go on."

Show, Finn thought in her head. Party. Fun time. Dad! Hey! You're missing out! Now would be the perfect time to appear!

Percy looked at his friends. "I'm getting tired of this guy's shit."

"Combat time?" Piper grabbed her horn of plenty.

"I'm cool with that," Finn said, pulling her gun back out.

"I hate Wonder bread," Jason agreed.

Together, they charged.

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Things went wrong immediately.

The twin giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Jason charged at Otis. Piper leaped across a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits, making her way toward Nico, who was dazed and weaponless and being stalked by a pair of leopards. Percy sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under his feet, and metal walls shot up on either side, separating him from his friends.

That left Finn to take care of Ephialtes.

She brought both her hands up, her gun gripped in between them. Finn pulled the trigger, weapon pointed right at Ephialtes. Good news: Finn's aim was always perfect. Bad news: no bullets came out of the barrel.

Finn cried in frustration. "NOW?" she shouted. "You decide to go AWOL, now?!"

Ephialtes laughed with glee when he realized what had happened. "Your father is useless, Finley Briggs! He won't help you here!"

Please don't let him be right, Finn begged, holstering her gun again. Come on, Dad. It's party time. You love parties. Please.

She couldn't stand here and plead to her father forever. Percy was hanging from a cage with a hydra inside, snapping at his hands. Sixty feet to Percy's left, Ephialtes stood at his control panel.

"Wonderful!" Ephialtes cried. "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?"

Finn had to get a hold of those controls. Or, at the very least, take Ephialtes's hold off the controls. She darted towards him in the same way Percy had, but since Ephialtes was distracted, the floor didn't swallow her the same way it did Percy.

She reached Ephialtes just as he pulled a lever. The hydra's cage was now rising toward a hatch in the ceiling. Percy let go, because in three seconds, they would be aboveground and the hydra would ravage the city.

Finn rammed into Ephialtes. Obviously, he was much bigger and heavier than her, but she'd caught him by surprise. The giant stumbled. Finn threw herself over the controls. She didn't know which thing meant what, so she started guessing. She didn't stop pressing and pulling at random panel features until the hydra's cage was lowering back to the ground.

Unfortunately, she didn't get the controls perfectly. The cage tumbled sideways. The door broke open, and the monster spilled out—right in front of Percy.

"Seriously?!" he cried.

"Sorry!" she called back nervously.

Ephialtes had finally processed what happened. He shoved Finn behind himself so hard that she slid backwards, not stopping until her back came in contact with the wall behind. "Oh, you are so much like your father, Briggs! Such a spoilsport!"

Finn groaned, though it sounded more like an, "Eh," as she worked on standing up again. Percy started battling the hydra, because he had no other option to, really. Meanwhile Ephialtes laughed as he pushed buttons on his control board, cracking the conveyor belts into high gear and opening random animal cages.

Finn got desperate. She pulled out her gun and chucked it as hard as she could at Ephialtes's head.

Good news: Finn's aim was still perfect. Bad news: why did she do that?

Ephialtes cried in bafflement, tripping over himself all the way to the floor. He blinked rapidly, dazed. Finn took this opportunity to run for the control panel again.

"Hey, dude!" she called out. "Mr. Hydra, look! There's Wonder bread over there!"

Finn pointed towards a now-empty cage, that was admittedly devoid of Wonder bread. But it got the hydra—and even Percy—to pause curiously. Percy blinked at her, like an idiot.

"I said," she shouted through gritted teeth, "there's Wonder bread over there!"

Percy finally got the hint. He muttered, "Oh!" before chucking his Wonder bread as hard as he could. He got lucky, because it landed perfectly inside of the cage Finn pointed towards. The hydra roared incredulously at what this mysterious Wonder bread was.

It charged toward the empty cage. All of Finn's muscles felt tense, hoping it would run faster. Ephialtes would be back any second. Finn didn't think she'd get lucky with another harsh shove.

The hydra finally started inspecting the bread in the cage. Finn zoomed through the controls. Her hands worked quickly at slamming onto the nearest button. All of a sudden, the cage door slammed down on the hydra, locking it back inside. She broke the button so that the cage couldn't be opened again. 

"BRIGGS!" Ephialtes roared, incredulously.

"Uh, oops!" Finn yelped. "Spasm!"

She bolted away from the control panel before Ephialtes could each her. Then, the giant got really desperate in trying to kill Finn. He set the control panel to release an easel of missile launchers. How fun!

"Duck and cover!" Percy yelled, alerting his friends who hadn't seen the threat.

Finn threw herself down as the easel fired. The sound was like a fiesta in the middle of an exploding gunpowder factory. A chunk of ceiling collapsed and crushed a waterwheel. More cages snapped off their chains, unleashing two zebras and a pack of hyenas. A grenade exploded over Ephialtes's head—what a fucking idiot—but it only blasted him off his feet. The control board didn't even look damaged.

Across the room, sandbags rained down around Piper and Nico. Piper tried to pull Nico to safety, but one of the bags caught her back and knocked her down.

"Piper!" Jason shouted. He ran toward her, completely forgetting about Otis, who aimed his spear at Jason's back.

"Look out!" Percy yelled.

Finn saw it before Jason did. She didn't even think.

As Otis threw, Finn crashed into Jason, putting herself in between him and Otis. She shoved Jason to the floor. The spear lodged right into Finn's left shoulder, and she let out a groaning shout of pain.

"Finn!" Jason cried. His eyes were wide, his breathing was fast, and he looked mortified.

Finn stumbled backward with the force of the giant's throw. Her hand instinctively flew up to the spear in her shoulder. She realized tears were welling up in her eyes when she blinked, because it stung.

"Aw, fuck," she grunted. There was a deep, throbbing ache in her shoulder that radiated down her arm and across her chest. Blood began spreading from the wound. "I'm—I'm good."

Luckily, this impalement seemed to have given her extreme mental fog. It was almost like she was in too much pain to actually feel the pain, if that made sense. She hadn't even realized that Jason had scrambled up, worrying over her desperately, trying to decide the best place to put his hands.

"O-Oh, gods," he choked, sounding nauseous. "Finley."

"No, I'm... I'm good," she declared again, blinking away the black spots.

Without thinking it over, Finn wrapped both her hands around the spear. She yanked it out of her shoulder before anyone could process what she was doing. Finn barely even heard her gasping cry, barely even registered her trembling legs.

"Oh, gods!" Jason repeated. That's how Finn finally understood it was bad. "You idiot, you're not supposed to take it out!"

"'m good," Finn rasped.

(She fell into Jason's side and the bloody spear clattered out of her hands. She was not, in fact, fine.)

One of Jason's arm instinctively welcomed Finn, wrapping around her and propping her up against him. But something in his eyes had gone dark. It was like stormy chaos brewing behind his gaze.

All he had to do was flick a hand, and suddenly, a gust of wind was being summoned. It sent the spear flying across the room and skewering Ephialtes through his side.

Ephialtes cried out, accidentally slapping his hands against the control board to regain balance. A sphere of Roman candle fire spat out. The fiery pink ball hit the ceiling above Otis and exploded in a beautiful shower of light. Colorful sparks pirouetted gracefully around the giant. Then a ten-foot section of roof collapsed and crushed him flat.

Percy ran to Finn's other side. She yelped when he touched her shoulder. Blood was spreading throughout, but she muttered, "Good. I'm good. Check Nico 'nd Piper."

She was in Jason's hold, so Percy figured that was fine enough. He did as Finn said, finding Piper and Nico. Piper was knocked completely unconscious. Next to her, Nico sat up, looking around him in bewilderment as if just realizing he'd missed a battle.

Finn just realized something too: she was curled into Jason's side. She groaned pathetically, trying to wrench away from him. But she moved her shoulder too harshly and an intense pain stopped her.

"Fuck," she wheezed.

"Hey, you're good," Jason muttered, re-situating her. "You said that, remember? You better be right."

"Hate you," Finn rasped.

"You just saved my life."

"And now you're in debt to me."

Jason snorted, although the timing was pretty terrible for him to be doing that. "Fine. If you don't bleed out and die, I'll owe you one later."

"Gods, I hate you," Finn said, but now it barely seemed like she registered Jason's presence. "I thought you... you were different. I thought you cared."

The blood loss continued and the pain persisted. Finn felt a sense of exhaustion weighing on her, intermingling with the dizziness and nausea.

"I—I do care, Finley," he said desperately. "Why would you ever say that?"

"You treated me like"—she groaned in pain—"shit. You hated me first. I was so miserable."

Jason blinked. He almost dropped his hold on Finn completely. "I made you feel that way?" he asked, and his voice wavered sadly.

Another shock of agony hit Finn in the shoulder. She threw her head back and grimaced, trying not to rely on Jason for support, but really needing to.

"Tired, Finley Briggs?"

Finn realized her eyes had been shut, because she had to open them to look at the speaker. Ephialtes—already healing from the spearing (Finn wished she could say the same)—smiled at her apologetically, next to Otis, who was also completely fine. They didn't even seem slightly deterred that Percy had ruined the control panel.

"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."

"Fuck, put me down," Finn whimpered. "You need to fight."

"Finle—"

"Do it, Grace. I'll be fine."

Gently, ever so gently, Jason set her down. Her trembling hands continued putting pressure on her shoulder wound, despite how much worse it made the pain. She couldn't let herself slow Jason down, she'd already been doing that for ten years of her life.

So she just watched through blurry eyes as Jason joined Percy. They stood shoulder to shoulder, ready to fight, despite the fact that the giants were ready to turn the two into a demigod-kabob.

"We won't give up," Jason growled. "I'll cut you into pieces, like Jupiter did to Saturn."

"That's right," Percy said darkly. "You're both dead. I'm making it back to Sylvie. 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."

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Finn took back all the insulting things she'd thought about her dad in the last few minutes. Never in a million years would she think of him as a calming influence, but suddenly everything got quiet. The machines ground to a halt. The wild animals stopped growling.

The wound in Finn's shoulder disappeared completely—her father had cured it with just a flick of his hand, leaving nothing behind except for blood-and-wine-stained clothes. She stood up, mouth agape in awe.

"Really, Ephialtes," he chided. "Killing demigods is one thing. But bringing harm upon my daughter? That's over the line."

The giant made a squeaking sound. "This—This is impossible. D-D—"

"It's Bacchus, actually, my old friend," said the god. "And of course it's possible. My daughter told me there was a party going on."

Finn let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. Her dad hadn't abandoned her in her time of need. He'd been listening. He'd came. She felt an embarrasing emotion crawl up her throat, but she swallowed to keep it down.

Bacchus looked mean and lean. He had long hair, spring in his step, and a shit ton of anger in his eyes. His thyrsus had never looked more intimidating.

Ephialtes's spear quivered. "You—You gods are doomed! Be gone, in the name of Gaea!"

"Hmm." Bacchus sounded unimpressed. He strolled through the ruined props, platforms, and special effects.

"Tacky." He waved his hand at a painted wooden gladiator, then turned to a machine that looked like an oversized rolling pin studded with knives. "Cheap. Boring. And this..." He inspected the rocket-launching contraption, which was still smoking. "Tacky, cheap, and boring. Honestly, Ephialtes. You have no sense of style."

"STYLE?" The giant's face flushed. "I have mountains of style. I define style. I—I—"

"My brother oozes style," Otis suggested.

"Thank you!" Ephialtes cried.

Bacchus stepped forward, and the giants stumbled back. "Have you two gotten shorter?" asked the god.

"Oh, that's low," Ephialtes growled. "I'm quite tall enough to destroy you, Bacchus! You gods, always hiding behind your mortal heroes, trusting the fate of Olympus to the likes of these."

He sneered at Jason, Percy, and Finn.

Jason hefted his sword. "Lord Bacchus, are we going to kill these giants or what?"

"Well, I certainly hope so," Bacchus said. "If you think I'd let them lodge a spear in Finley's shoulder and still walk around breathing, you are poorly mistaken."

"So my impalement convinced you?" Finn asked incredulously. "I dedicated an entire ship full of Diet Pepsi and six million in riches to you!"

"Yes," Bacchus said, "although with demigod parties of five or more the gratuity is included, so that wasn't necessary."

"What?"

"Never mind," Bacchus said. "At any rate, you got my attention. I'm here. I'm going to destroy these two imbeciles. Not you, Jasquatch and Periwinkle. Unfortunately."

Bacchus walked to the open trenches and remaining waterwheels.

"You two imbeciles," he said. Ephialtes and Otis choked. "No, not you two. The other two, this time. Create that hurricane thing you do. I want to see it."

"You want to see it?" Jason roared.

"Grace!" Finn said. "Just do what he says."

In all honestly, Ephialtes and Otis didn't stand a chance. Finn was actually in awe at how powerless the two giants were under the threat of Jason, Percy, and Bacchus. 

There was a newfound fire in all three of them. See, Bacchus wanted bountiful amounts of revenge for what they did to Finn; Percy had turned almost darker now that the sake of Sylvie's safety was at risk; Jason... was angry about something, but Finn was too invested to figure out what.

Jason and Percy worked together as one. It was just like that time on the Argo II. They stood shoulder to shoulder, their swords crossed. They summoned the sky and the sea to do their bidding. Water and wind churned together. Waves rushed and lightning flashed. Ephiatles and Otis were knocking everywhere as they tried to fight back. They kept crying out in either annoyance or pain, powerless to the boys' creation.

Then Finn's father stepped in.

Bacchus raised his thyrsus. He smacked Otis's head with the pinecone staff, and a drenched-and-electrocuted Otis disintegrated completely.

Bacchus strutted over to Ephialtes, who was lying spread-eagled, soggy and seizing. Again, Bacchus raised his thyrsus.

"Do it!" Finn cheered.

"DON'T DO IT!" Ephialtes wailed.

Bacchus tapped the giant on the nose, and Ephialtes crumbled to ashes.

He turned and grinned at the demigods. "That, my friends, is a show!"

Percy and Jason uncrossed their swords, panting. Water rushed back down to the ground. Wind and lightning dissipated. Luckily, their storm hadn't been as large or powerful or enduring as the last one. Yes, the boys looked drained, but not even close to as much as before. They weren't pale and shaking this time.

Piper and Nico were better too. Piper was finally conscious again, holding up Nico as they tried joining the group of three half-bloods and one god.

"Well," Bacchus said. "That was fun. You have my permission to continue your voyage."

"Your permission?" Percy snarled.

"Yes." Bacchus raised an eyebrow. "Although your voyage may be a little harder than you expect, son of Neptune."

"Poseidon," Percy corrected him automatically. "What do you mean about my voyage?"

"You might try the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building," Bacchus said. "Best place to break through. Now, good-bye, my friends. It was nice to see you again, Finley. And, ah, good luck with that other little matter."

The god vaporized in a cloud of mist that smelled faintly of grape juice.

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

It was easier to find a way out than they expected.

The whole ordeal with the rocket missiles, Jason-Percy storm, and reign of Bacchus's insanity had led to the roof above them crumbling more and more until it was nothing but a gaping hole.

Jason planned to just fly everyone out one or two at a time, but they would soon find out there was no need for that at all. Before they knew it, the Argo II was flying down to rescue them. All of Frank, Hazel, Annabeth, Leo, and Coach Hedge were aboard.

"You're alive!" Piper said to the others. "The giants said you were captured. What happened?"

"Basically," Leo explained, "I activated a hydraulic screw with the Archimedes device—which is going to be awesome once I install it in the ship, by the way. Hazel sensed the easiest path to drill to the surface. We made a tunnel big enough for a weasel, and Frank climbed up with a simple transmitter that Annabeth and I slapped together. After that, it was just a matter of Annabeth hacking into Coach Hedge's favorite satellite channels and telling him to bring the ship around to rescue us. After he got us, finding you was easy, thanks to that godly thunder show."

Finn understood about ten percent of Leo's story, but she decided it wasn't worth it to ask. She was just grateful they were all done with their separate expeditions.

All, except for one.

"Where's Sylvie?" Percy pressed finally, when he couldn't hold himself back any longer.

Leo winced. "Yeah, about that... she's still in trouble, we think. Hurt, doesn't even know her name, broken leg, maybe—at least according to this vision Gaea shown us. Rescuing her is our next stop."

Percy looked like a surge of something cursed through his body—anger, fear, worry, concern, misery, something. Finn figured it was closest to anger, because his body language read that he wanted to strangle Leo and demand why the Argo II hadn't sailed off to rescue Sylvie first. She was glad he didn't do that. It would've been pretty ungrateful.

"Tell me about the vision," Percy said instead. "Tell me everything."

And so they did, as they sailed south over the rooftops of Rome.

The demigods gathered around the helm. Annabeth treated Piper's concussion while Hazel sat at the stern, feeding Nico ambrosia. The son of Hades could barely lift his head. His voice was so quiet, Hazel had to lean in whenever he spoke.

Frank and Leo recounted what had happened in the room with the Archimedes spheres, and the visions Gaea had shown them in the bronze mirror. They quickly decided that their best lead for finding Sylvie was the cryptic advice Bacchus had provided: the Emmanuel Building, whatever that was. Frank started typing at the helm's computer while Leo tapped furiously at his controls, muttering, "Emmanuel Building. Emmanuel Building." Coach Hedge tried to help by wrestling with an upside-down street map of Rome. Annabeth seemed too hung up on Piper to put her two cents in. Jason had elected to hover unsurely around Finn, much to her demise.

She heavily regretted the things she'd said to him when she'd been dazed with pain from the spear. It had been too honest. Far deeper than Finn ever wanted to go. But now, Jason was starting to form an idea of why she was so hostile with him. The fact she couldn't decide whether she loved or hated that made her nauseous.

Sensing Finn's need for saving, Percy kneeled next to them both. "So the shoulder's really all healed up?"

Finn smiled. "I guess my dad works wonders beyond vaporizing twin giants." Then, "He couldn't have done that alone, though. What you two did together was... cool. I guess."

Jason elbowed Percy. "Not a bad team, you and me."

"Better than jousting in a Kansas cornfield," Percy agreed.

"There it is!" Leo cried, pointing to his monitor. "Frank, you're amazing! I'm setting course."

Frank hunched his shoulders. "I just read the name off the screen. Some Chinese tourist marked it on Google Maps."

Leo grinned at the others. "He reads Chinese."

"Just a tiny bit," Frank said.

"How cool is that?"

Finn and Piper rolled their eyes in unison.

"Guys," Hazel broke in. "I hate to interrupt your admiration session, but you should hear this."

She helped Nico to his feet. He'd always been pale, but now his skin looked like powdered milk. His dark sunken eyes reminded Finn of photos she'd seen of liberated prisoners-of-war, which Finn guessed Nico basically was.

"Thank you," Nico rasped. His eyes darted nervously around the group. "I'd given up hope."

A multitude of emotions flashed through Percy's eyes. Everyone waited for him to speak, because there was clearly heavy baggage between the two boys.

"You knew about the two camps all along," Percy said. "You could have told me who I was the first day I arrived at Camp Jupiter, but you didn't."

Nico slumped against the helm. "Percy, I'm sorry. I discovered Camp Jupiter last year. My dad led me there, though I wasn't sure why. He told me the gods had kept the camps separate for centuries and that I couldn't tell anyone. The time wasn't right. But he said it would be important for me to know..." He doubled over in a fit of coughing.

Hazel held his shoulders until he could stand again.

"I—I thought Dad meant because of Hazel," Nico continued. "I'd need a safe place to take her. But now... I think he wanted me to know about both camps so I'd understand how important your quest was, and so I'd search for the Doors of Death."

The air turned electric—literally, as Jason started throwing off sparks.

"Did you find the doors?" Annabeth asked.

Nico nodded. "I was a fool. I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaea's trap. I might as well have tried running from a black hole."

"Um..." Frank chewed his lip. "What kind of black hole are you talking about?"

Nico started to speak, but whatever he needed to say must have been too terrifying. He turned to Hazel.

She put her hand on her brother's arm. "Nico told me that the Doors of Death have two sides—one in the mortal world, one in the Underworld. The mortal side of the portal is in Greece. It's heavily guarded by Gaea's forces. That's where they brought Nico back into the upper world. Then they transported him to Rome."

Piper winced, like her anxiety gave her a pounding headache. Considering her concussion, that probably wasn't so far off. "Where exactly in Greece is this doorway?"

Nico took a rattling breath. "The House of Hades. It's an underground temple in Epirus. I can mark it on a map, but—but the mortal side of the portal isn't the problem. In the Underworld, the Doors of Death are in... in..."

A cold hand wrapped around Finn's neck, like there was a bullet lodging through again.

A black hole. An inescapable part of the Underworld where even Nico di Angelo couldn't go.

"Tartarus," Percy guessed. "The deepest part of the Underworld."

Nico nodded. "They pulled me into the pit, Percy. The things I saw down there..." His voice broke.

Hazel pursed her lips. "No mortal has ever been to Tartarus," she explained. "At least, no one has ever gone in and returned alive. It's the maximum-security prison of Hades, where the old Titans and the other enemies of the gods are bound. It's where all monsters go when they die on the earth. It's... well, no one knows exactly what it's like."

Her eyes drifted to her brother. The rest of her thought didn't need to be spoken: No one except Nico.

Hazel handed him his black sword.

Nico leaned on it like it was a cane. "Now I understand why Hades hasn't been able to close the doors," he said. "Even the gods don't go into Tartarus. Even the god of death, Thanatos himself, wouldn't go near that place."

Leo glanced over from the wheel. "So let me guess. We'll have to go there."

Nico shook his head. "It's impossible. I'm the son of Hades, and even I barely survived. Gaea's forces overwhelmed me instantly. They're so powerful down there... no demigod would stand a chance. I almost went insane."

Nico's eyes looked like shattered glass. Finn wondered if something inside him had broken permanently.

"Then we'll sail for Epirus," Annabeth said. "We'll just close the gates on this side."

"I wish it were that easy," Nico said. "The doors would have to be controlled on both sides to be closed. It's like a double seal. Maybe, just maybe, all nine of you working together could defeat Gaea's forces on the mortal side, at the House of Hades. But unless you had a team fighting simultaneously on the Tartarus side, a team powerful enough to defeat a legion of monsters in their home territory—"

"There has to be a way," Jason said.

Nobody volunteered any brilliant ideas.

Finn thought her stomach was sinking. Then she realized the entire ship was descending toward a big building like a palace.

"Sylvie," Nico breathed.

Finn glanced at Percy nervously, watching as he tensed up. His hand instinctively found the gold and blue ring around his necklace. She wondered how the cord hadn't snapped with how frequently he tugged at it.

"Is it true, about her quest? Did she really forget all her...?" Nico had started to ask, but the eight agonized faces staring back at him were answers enough. "We have to save her. She tried to do the same for me. I know she did."

As if "not saving Sylvie Duvall" had ever been an idea in their minds.

"Of course she did, she's Sylvie," Annabeth said. "Look, that's the Emmanuel Building. Bacchus said something about the parking lot in the back? Well, there it is. What now?"

Heads turned to Percy again. It didn't take any discussion to decide that this was Percy's call. Sylvie was everything in the world to him. As he thought about it, his body froze and his eyes glazed over.

Then, his hand closed in a determined fist over the ring on his necklace.

"We have to get her out," he said.

"Well, yeah," Leo agreed. "But, uh..."

He looked like he wanted to say, What if we're too late?

Wisely, he changed tack: "There's a parking lot in the way."

Finn looked at Coach Hedge. "Bacchus said something about breaking through. Coach, you still have ammo for those ballistae?"

The satyr grinned like a wild goat. "I thought you'd never ask."

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

BAILEY YAPS...

I'm so sorry this chapter is so long but I didn't want to split it into two more short chapters...

I'm also so sorry that this chapter is horrible. I really do not gaf abt the giant fights so I tried cutting out a good bit but that probably made everything seem all over the place. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry just close your eyes and buckle in for the return of Sylvie

Jason going dark because Finn was hurt 🤝 Percy going dark because Sylvie is in danger (🤝 Bacchus going dark also because Finn was hurt)

This might've been a win for Jinley nation but for some reason it still feels like a huge loss. There's always a deeper meaning to them I can't escape I'm so sorry