GIANTS

"splattered with ichor"

     FROM THE PORT to the Acropolis, Ariadne didn't see anything of Athens except dark, putrid tunnels. The snake men led them through an iron storm grate at the docks, straight into their underground, which smelled of rotting fish, mold and snakeskin.

The atmosphere made it hard for Ariadne to not be reminded of Tartarus, and Annabeth seemed to be in a similar boat. Both girls took shaky breaths and kept moving in fear of seeing the other pale and grey. Piper kept up the son. If she stopped for longer than a minute or two, Kekrops and his guards started hissing and looking angry.

"I don't like this place," Annabeth murmured. "Reminds me of when I was underneath Rome."

Kekrops hissed with laughter. "Our domain is much older. Much, much older."

Ariadne slipped her hand into Percy's and Annabeth gripped the back of her best friend's shirt. The brunette had the blonde huddle closer to them and Percy grew stern in his expression. Piper felt downhearted. She wished Jason were with her. Hell, she'd even settle for Leo.

Piper's voice echoed through the tunnels. As they travelled further into the lair, more snake people gathered to hear her. Soon they had a procession following behind them--dozens of gemini all swaying and slithering.

They passed through crude stone chambers littered with bones. They climbed slopes so steep and slippery it was nearly impossible to keep their footing. At one point, they passed a warm cave the size of a gymnasium filled with snake eggs, their tops covered with a layer of silver filaments like slimy Christmas tinsel.

More and more snake people joined their procession. Slithering behind them, they sounded like an army of football players shuffling with sandpaper on their cleats. Ariadne wondered how many gemini lived down there. Hundreds, maybe even thousands.

She thought she heard her own heartbeat echoing through the corridors, getting louder and louder the deeper they went. Then she realized the persistent boom ba-boom was all around them, resonating through the stone and the air.

I wake, A woman's voice, as clear as Piper's singing.

Percy froze. "Oh, that's not good."

"It's like Tartarus," Annabeth said, her voice edgy. "You remember...his heartbeat. When he appeared--"

"Don't," Ariadne said. Amethyst eyes haunted by visions in her head. "Just don't."

"Sorry." On the light of their swords, Ariadne and Percy's faces were like large fireflies--a hovering, momentary smudge of brightness in the dark.

The voice of Gaia spoke, louder: At last.

Piper's singing wavered. But slowly, it grew stronger, for her friends' safety and for Gaia, too. Finally they reached the top of a steep slope, where the path ended in a curtain of green goo.

Kekrops faced the demigods. "Beyond this camouflage is the Acropolis. You must remain here. I will check that your way is clear."

"Wait." Piper turned to address the crowd of gemini. "There is only death above. You will be safer in the tunnels. Hurry back. Forget you saw us. Protect yourselves."

The fear in her voice was channeled perfectly with charmspeak. The snake people, even the guards, turned and slithered into the darkness, leaving only the king.

"Kekrops," Piper said, "You're planning to betray us as soon as you step through that goo."

"Yes," he agreed. "I will alert the giants. They will destroy you." The he hissed. "Why did I tell you that?"

"Listen to the heartbeat of Gaia," Piper urged. "You can sense her rage, can't you?"

Kekrops wavered. The end of his staff glowed dimly. "I can, yes, She is angry."

"She'll destroy everything," Piper said. "She'll reduce the Acropolis to a smoking crater. Athens--your city--will be utterly destroyed, your people along with it, You believe me, don't you?"

"I--I do."

"Whatever hatred you have for humans, for demigods, for Athena, we are the only chance to stop Gaia. So you will not betray us. For your own sake, and your people, you will scout the territory and make sure the way is clear. You will say nothing to the giants. Then you will return."

"That is...what I'll do." Kekrops disappeared through the membrane of goo.

Annabeth shook her head in amazement, "Piper, that was incredible."

"We'll see if it works." Piper sat down on the cool stone floor.

The others squatted next to her. Percy handed her a canteen of water. Until she took a drink, Piper hadn't realized how dry her throat was. "Thanks."

Percy nodded. "You think the charm will last?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "If Kekrops comes in two minutes with Ana army of giants, then no."

"The good thing is that we're underground," Ariadne said, giving her a smile. "Worst comes to pass, I can shuttle tunnel down and get us out."

The heartbeat of Gaia echoed through the floor. Strangely, it made Ariadne think of the sea--how the waves boomed. Her eye went to Percy who was already looking to her and a flush crossed her face. They hadn't spoken about the night before and she wasn't sure what the conversation was would be like, but she can only imagine being extremely awkward. She loved him, but it was all so new, and in the middle of saving the world it was worse.

"Do you guys ever think about you families?" Piper asked.

Percy's gaze became unfocused. His lower lip quivered. "My mom...I-I haven't even seen her since Hera made me disappear. I called her after Aidan fell. I gave Coach Hedge some letters to deliver to her. I..." His voice broke. "She's all I've got. Her and my stepdad, Paul."

"And Tyson," Annabeth reminded him. "And Grover. And--"

"Yeah, of course," Percy said. "Thanks. I feel much better."

Piper probably shouldn't have laughed, but she was too full of nervousness and melancholy to hold it in. "What about you, Annabeth?"

"My dad...my stepmom and stepbrothers." She turned the drakon-bone blade in her lap. "After all I've been through in the past year, it seems stupid that I resented them for so long. And my dad's relatives...I haven't thought about them in years. I have an uncle and cousin in Boston."

Ariadne looked shocked. "You, with the Yankees cap? You've got family in Red Sox country?"

Annabeth smiled weakly. "I never see them. My dad and my uncle don't get along. Some old rivalry. I don't know. It's stupid what keeps people apart."

The brunette nudged Annabeth's shoulder and she repeated the action, chuckling at how her friend became somewhat off balance into her boyfriend even while being an expert swordswoman. Piper turned to Ariadne and noticed the distant look.

"Ari?" Piper asked. "What of your family?"

"Oh." Ariadne pursed her lips. "My brother, Pollux, he's at Yale with his girlfriend. Castor...he-he's gone. Has been for a few years. I...don't have much."

The daughter of Aphrodite felt her pain. She had her dad, and that was even strained. All three noticed how she didn't speak of Dionysus anymore. It seemed to hurt her more than it let on, and Annabeth leaned against her shoulder in solidarity. Percy kissed her forehead briefly.

Some pain shouldn't be wished away so easily. It had to be dealt with, even embraced. Without the agony of the last few months, Piper never would have found her best friends, Hazel and Annabeth and Ariadne. She never would've discovered her own courage.

At the top of the tunnel, the green membrane rippled. Ariadne grabbed her sword and rose, prepared for a flood of monsters.

But Kekrops emerged alone.

"The way is clear," he said. "But hurry. The ceremony is almost complete."

Pushing through the curtain of mucus was almost fun. They emerged feeling like they'd just rolled through a giant's nostril. Fortunately, none of the gunk stuck to them.

All four found themselves in a cool, damp pit that seemed to be the basement level of a temple. All around them, uneven ground stretched into darkness under a low ceiling of stone. Directly above their heads, a rectangular gap was open to the sky. Ariadne could see the eyes of the walls and the tops of columns, but no monsters...yet.

The camouflage membrane had closed behind them and blended into the ground. Piper pressed her hand against it. The area seemed to be solid rock. They wouldn't be leaving the way they'd come.

Annabeth ran her hand along some marks on the ground--a jagged crow's-foot shape as long as a human body. The area was lumpy and white, like stone scar tissue. "This is the place," she said. "Percy, these are the trident marks of Poseidon."

Hesitantly, Percy touched the scars. "He must've been using his extra-extra-large trident."

"This is where he struck the earth," Annabeth said, "where he made a saltwater spring appear when he had the contest with my mom to sponsor Athens."

"So this is where the rivalry started," Percy said.

"Yeah."

Percy pulled Annabeth into a hug. For the most part, they were still best friends. The original four had been together so long that the blonde was his sister. Sure, they may have had a huge hate for one another because of the stupid rivalry, but the two found peace in their differences. When they pulled away it held a comforting air.

"The rivalry ends here," Percy said. Annabeth nodded.

Ariadne snorted, breaking tension. She was looking to the ground at the markings closely. "Which, you know, Athens sounds better. What were they gonna call it for him? Poseidonopolis?"

A goofy look crossed Percy's face. A smile warped on his lips and his hand lurched the girl to him. Ariadne only had enough time to let out a small squeak before he kissed her...long enough for Annabeth to sigh and step back near Piper.

"This always happens, huh?" Piper said. She knew as a daughter of Aphrodite was the purest love looked like, and it was them.

"That would be an understatement," Annabeth scoffed. "They didn't kiss as much as they should've when they were younger so they're making up for lost time." She leaned closer to Piper. "But, between you and me, they had enough of that last night."

Piper's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

A grin crept up the blonde's face. "Oh, you know, they got a bit busy in the night."

Realization hit the younger demigod and they both laughed together. Once Percy stepped back, Ariadne looked like a fish gasping for air.

"I love you, Curly Fry," Percy confessed.

Ariadne looked to see her girl friends giggling and glowered. The two shared sly looks and a moment of understanding passed. "Don't say anything."

"What?" Annabeth laughed. "Sorry, did you want a kiss from me, too? I think you got enough last night."

Piper howled with laughter and held her stomach. Percy muffled his own at the glare from his girlfriend who threw more nasty looks around.

"We are not talking about it," Ariadne huffed. "We're beneath whatever temple is for Athena and Poseidon."

Annabeth raised an unimpressed brow. "The Erechtheion. The Parthenon should be diagonally to the southeast of here. We'll need to sneak around the perimeter and disable as many siege weapons as we can, make an approach path for the Argo II."

"It's broad daylight," Piper said. "How will we go unnoticed?"

Annabeth scanned the sky. "That's why I make a plan with Frank and Hazel. Hopefully...ahead of, look."

A bee zipped overhead. Dozens more followed. They swarmed around a column, then hovered over the opening of the pit.

"Say hi to Frank, everybody," Annabeth said.

Piper waved. The cloud of bees zipped away.

How does that even work?" Percy said. "Like...one bee is a finger? Two bees are his eyes?"

"I don't know," Annabeth admitted. "But he's our go-between. As soon as he gives Hazel the word, she will--"

"Gah!" Ariadne yelped.

Annabeth clamped her hand over her mouth.

Which looked strange, because suddenly each of them had turned into a hulking, six-armed Earthborn.

"Hazel's Mist." Piper's voice sounded deep and gravelly.

Ariadne looked down and had a lovely Neanderthal body--belly hair, loincloth, stubby legs and oversized feet. If she concentrated, she could see her normal arms, but when she moved them they rippled like mirages, separating into three different sets of muscular Earthborn arms.

Percy grimaced, which looked even worse on his newly uglified face. "Wow, Aidan...I'm really glad I kissed you before you changed."

"Thanks a lot," she said.

"We should get going," Annabeth told them. "I'll move clockwise around the perimeter. Piper, you move counterclockwise. Ari, Percy, you scout the middle--"

"Wait," Percy said. "We're walking right into the whole blood-spilling sacrifice trap we've been warned about, and you want to split up even more and send a girl and guy in the center?"

"We'll cover more ground that way," Annabeth said. "You and Ari are the best fighters. We have to hurry. That chanting..."

An ominous drone in the distance, like a hundred forklifts idling. Bits of gravel trembled, skittering southeast, as if pulled towards the Parthenon.

"Right," Piper said. "We'll meet up at the giant's throne."

At first it was easy.

Monsters were everywhere--hundreds of ogres, Earthborn and Cyclopes milling through the ruins--but most of them were gathered at the Parthenon, watching the ceremony in progress. Ariadne and Percy stayed close enough together but far enough to not draw attention. They strolled through the crowd unchallenged.

Near the first onager, three Earthborn were sunning themselves on the rocks. Ariadne noticed Piper walking up to them and stopped herself from staring for too long. Just as she turned the girl was separated from Percy. His was swarmed into a mix of other Earthborn and the girl grew worried, but tried to not actively slash them in the middle of the crowd.

It happened so quickly; a monster bumped into her and instinctively, her sword sprung out and swiped down a row of them. The crowd stopped and Ariadne noticed the Parthenon group staring at her. Because of her defense, the Mist form surrounding dropped, causing her body to emerge. A wave of monsters attacked but she defended skillfully. As she slashed and stabbed, a hand caught the back of her neck and she watched as the chanting stopped. a BOOM echoed across the hillside.

Piper blended into the crowd of sour-smelling Earthborn. The scene in the ruins almost made her cry aloud.

Before Porphyrion's throne, dozens of giants stood in a loose ring, hollering and shaking their weapons as three of their number paraded around the circle, showing off their prizes. The princess Periboia held Annabeth by the neck like a feral cat. The giant Enceladus had Percy wrapped in his massive fist. Ephialtes was wrangling a fighting Ariadne back into his clutches, with Otis helping.

The trip struggled helplessly. Ariadne tried raising vines but they were cut down immediately, and seemed to struggle popping out because of how hard Gaia fought them not to. Their captors displayed them to the cheering horde of monsters, the turned to face King Porphyrion, who sat in his makeshift throne, his white eyes gleaming with malice.

"Right on time!" the giant king bellowed. "The blood of Olympus raise the Earth Mother!"

Piper watched in horror as the giant king rose to his full height--almost as tall as the temple columns. His face looked just as she remembered--green as bile, with a twisted sneer, his seaweed-colored hair braided with swords and axes taken from dead demigods.

He loomed over the captives, watching them wriggle. "They arrived just as you foresaw, Enceladus! Well done!"

Ariadne's old enemy bowed his head, braided bones clattering in his dreadlocks. "It was simple, my king."

The flame designs gleamed on his armor. His spear burned with purplish fire. He only needed one hand to hold his captive. Despite all of Percy Jackson's power, despite everything he had survived, in the end he was helpless against the strength of the giant--and the inevitability of prophecy.

"I knew these three would lead the assault," Enceladus continued. "I understand how they think. Athena and Poseidon...they were just like these children! They both came here thinking to claim this city. And the Daughter of the Vines never strays from a fight. Their arrogance has undone them!"

Pophyrion huffed as Ephialtes and Otis struggle once again to contain Ariadne. She was bashing against them, pulling herself from their hands to reach her friends, but the giant kid was having none of it. His large hand enclosed on the girl's body. Fingers fastened tightly, locking arms against body and leaving her gasping from the pressure. Annabeth and Percy yelled for him to stop as a scream erupted from the girl's lips when it began to hurt and he lightened up, a grin crossing his face with sadistic pleasure.

But, Enceladus had only said three. They didn't know of Piper.

Annabeth tried to say something, but the giantess Periboia shook her by the neck. "Shut up! None of your silver-tongued trickery!"

The princess drew a hunting knife as long as a sword. "Let me do the honors, Father!"

"Wait, Daughter." The king stepped back. "The sacrifice must be done properly. Thoon, destroyer of the Fates, come forward!"

The wizened grey giant shuffled into sight, holding an oversized meat cleaver. He fixed his milky eyes on Ariadne.

Percy shouted. At the other end of the Acropolis, a hundred years away, a geyser of water shot into the sky. A failed wall of vines died just as quickly as they grew, and Ariadne cursed loudly in grief at being connected to the earth.

King Porphyrion laughed. He shook the girl in his palm a bit. "You'll have to do better than that, son of Poseidon and daughter of Dionysus. The earth is too powerful here. Even your fathers wouldn't be able to summon more than a salty spring and bundle of vines. But never fear. The only liquid we require from you is your blood!"

Thoon knelt and touched the blade of his cleaver reverently against the earth. "Mother Gaia..." His voice was impossibly deep, shaking the ruins, making the metal scaffold resonate. "In ancient times, blood mixed with your soil to create life. Now, let the blood of these demigods return the favor. We bring you to full wakefulness. We greet you as our eternal mistress!"

Without thinking, Piper leaped from the scaffolding. She sailed over the heads of the Cyclopes and ogres, landed in the centre of the courtyard and pushed her way into the circle of giants. As Thoon rose to use his cleaver, Piper slashed upward with her sword. She took off Thoon' s hand at the wrist.

The old giant wailed. The cleaver and severed hand lay in the dust at Piper's feet. She felt her Mist disguise burn away until she was just Piper again - one girl in the midst of an army of giants, her jagged bronze blade like a toothpick compared to their massive weapons.

"WHAT IS THIS?" Porphyrion thundered. "How dare this weak, useless creature interrupt?"

Piper followed her gut. She attacked.

Piper's advantages: she was small, she was quick, and she was absolutely insane. She drew her knife Katoptris and threw it at Enceladus, hoping she wouldn't hit Percy by accident. She veered aside without witnessing the results, but, judging from the giant's painful howl, she'd aimed well.

Several giants ran at her at once. Piper dodged between their legs and let them bash their heads together.

She wove through the crowd, jabbing her sword into dragon-scale feet at every opportunity and yelling, "RUN! RUN AWAY!" to sow confusion.

"NO! STOP HER!" Porphyrion shouted. "KILL HER!"

A spear almost impaled her. Piper swerved and kept running. It 's just like capture the flag, she told herself. Only the enemy team is all thirty feet tall.

A huge sword sliced across her path. Compared to her sparring practice with Hazel, the strike was ridiculously slow. Piper leaped over the blade and zigzagged towards Annabeth, who was still kicking and writhing inPeriboia's grip. Piper had to free her friend

Unfortunately, the giantess seemed to anticipate her plan.

I think not, demigod!" Periboia yelled. "This one stays with me!"

The giantess raised her knife.

Piper screamed in charmspeak: "MISS!"

At the same time, Annabeth kicked up her legs to make herself smaller. Periboia's knife passed to the far side of Piper, and with the wide arc she made, it went beneath Annabeth's legs and stabbed the giantess's own palm.

"OWWW!"

Periboia dropped Annabeth--alive. Piper lunged at the giantess. Her jagged blade suddenly felt ice cold in her hands. The surprised giantess glances down as the sword of Boread pierced her gut. Frost spread across her bronze breastplate.

Piper yanked out her sword. The giantess toppled backwards--steaming white and frozen solid. Periboia hit the ground with a thud.

"My daughter!" King Porphyrion leveled his spear and threw Ariadne to the ground--hard. All of them flinched at the sound of her body hitting dirt, but the girl rolled over quick enough to avoid the giant king charging. She bounced back to her feet while stumbling slightly, weaponless.

But Percy had other ideas.

Enceladus had dropped him...probably because the giant was busy staggering around with Piper's knife embedded in his forehead, ichor streaming into his eyes.

Percy had no weapon--perhaps his sword had been confiscated or lost in the fighting--but he didn't let that stop him. As the giant king ran towards Piper, Percy grabbed the tip of Porphyrion's spear and forced it down into the ground. The giant's own momentum lifted him off his feet in an unintentional pole-vault maneuver and he flipped over onto his back.

Ananbeth dragged herself to her feet and Piper ran to her side. She stood over her friend, sweeping her blade back and forth to keep the giants at bay. Cold blue steam now wreathed her blade.

"Who wants to be the next Popsicle?" she yelled, channelling anger into her charmspeak. "Who wants to go back to Tartarus?"

Ariadne took the moments of unease to throw herself into a few Earthborn. Without a weapon--Cygnus most likely planning on reappearing in a few minutes--she slammed her fits into the side of the monsters and from the force they splattered to clay at her feet. She met Percy forty feet from the other two demigods, bent over the giant king, trying to yank two swords from the braids of his hair. But Porphyrion wasn't as stunned as he let on.

"Fools!" Porphyrion backhanded Percy like a pesky fly and Ariadne dodged in time. The son of Poseidon flew into a column with a sickening crunch. He rose. "These demigods cannot kill us! They do not have the help of the gods. Remember who you are!"

The girl ran to her boyfriend but was cut off as numerous of them closed in. Percy tried to stand, but he was obviously dazed. He wouldn't be able to defend himself.

"Come on, then!" Ariadne yelled. "I'll destroy you all myself if I have to!"

And she meant it. A metallic storm filled the air. All the hairs on Ariadne's arms stood up.

"The thing is," said a voice from above, "you don't have to."

At the top of the nearest colonnade stood Jason, his sword gleaming gold in the sun. Frank stood at his side, his bow ready. Hazel sat astride Arion, who reared and whinnied in challenge.

With a defining blast, a white-hot bolt arced from the sky, straight through Jason's body as he leaped, wreathed in lightning, at the giant king.

For the next three minutes, life was great.

So much happened at once that only an ADHD demigod could have kept track. Annabeth had explained to Ariadne, Piper, and Percy after they left to follow Kekrops that she had sent Grover ahead to help at Camp at his behest. He felt he'd gotten them to the Acropolis, and now he needed to rally up the rest of nature back home. He figured out how to do a transporting spell through the ground--whatever that meant.

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 fire 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 DAGGER IN YOUR FOREHEAD."

"GAH!" The giant pulled Katoptris 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!" Buford ordered.

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

The giantess Periboia had thawed with alarming speed. She tried to grab Annabeth, but she stabbed at the giantess with her own hunting knife and led her in a deadly game of tag around the throne.

Percy was back on his feet, Riptide once again in his hands. He still looked dazed. He noticed Thoon trying to hit Ariadne with his meat cleaver and reattached hand as the girl was still without weapon as it scattered behind her. The girl kicked at the giant but it barely did anything, and the boy jumped in to help. He yelped as the cleaver snagged at the skin above his heart and punctured easily. His shirt was slashed a bit and bits of red spotted quickly but he ignored it as his girlfriend grabbed her sword and went back to fighting.

They were actually winning!

But too soon their element of surprise faded. The giants overcame their confusion.

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.

Annabeth 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. Ariadne felt a slash across her right cheek, from the side of her nose diagonal down to her jaw stung. Thoon had gotten a hit as she became distracted.

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 seven 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 Ariadne Phoenix and Percy Jackson. 

Piper glanced over. Two similar cuts littered their bodies. They seemed unaware due to adrenaline that a trickle of blood had mad its way down her face and his arm from brushing against it. 

"Ari, Percy, look out..." Piper tried to say, but for once her voice failed her. 

Two single drops of blood fell from them. A red splatter hit the ground first between the two demigods, and the second was a deep purple and it 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. 

***

     ARIADNE KNEW WHAT it felt and looked like of someone's life flashing before their eyes. She had experienced it numerous times over the years. 

But it had never been like this. 

Standing with her friends in a defensive ring, surrounding by giants, then looking up at an impossible vision in the sky--she could almost see herself in fifty years. 

She was still in New York, outside the city. In the backyard of a house blue in color with plants wrapped around each railing of the porch. The wind was a cool breeze, and the sky clear and sun shining. Percy was sitting beside her on a porch couch swinging together as their huddled grandchildren sat around them, and she was trying to explain what had happened that day in Athens. The man beside her only cuing in to laugh or tease, and provide sound effects for dramatics, and both their grey streaks finally didn't stand out in their hair. 

I'm serious, she said. Seven demigods on the ground and one more in a burning shop 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!

Nana, the kids said, don't kid.

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

No he didn't! the kids denied. They began giggling as vines sprouted closer and tickled them, causing them to jump and squeal into the older adults' arms. 

But Ariadne was there. She looked up as the clouds parted over the Acropolis, and she almost snatched Jason's new prescription lenses to see. 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 the gods charged down from on high.

It was too much to process. And it was probably best she didn't see it all. Only later would Ariadne 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 flashes 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-colored plumage so bright it gave Ariadne 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 Ariadne and her friends were surrounded by the Olympians, now human-sized, tiny next to the giants, but glowing with power. 

But no Dionysus. 

Jason shouted and charged Porphyrion. 

His friends joined in the carnage.

The fighting ranged all over the Parthenon and Spilled across the Acropolis. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Ariadne saw Annabeth fighting Enceladus. At her side stood a woman with long dark hair and golden armor 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 Annabeth 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 disemboweled 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 fires to their enemies with two blazing torches. Ariadne 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 hordes of other giants, while at his side fought a beared man with a trident and a loud Hawaiian shirt. The giants stumbled. Poseidon's tried 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. 

Piper fenced with the giantess Periboia, sword against sword. Despite the fact that her opponent was five times larger, Piper seemed to be holding her own. The goddess Aphrodite held a dagger of pure Celestial bronze and dove between the giantess while stabbing and prodding to throw her off. Whenever Periboia tried to strike, doves rose up from nowhere and fluttered in the giantess's face. 

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. 

Jason stood beside his father, Zeus. The god blasted the throne to rubble. The giant king flew backwards out of the temple and Jason ran after him, his father at his heels. Porphyrion lashed out wildly with his spear, but Jason cut it in half with his gladius. He charged in, jabbing his sword through the giant's breastplate, then summoned the winds and blasted Porphyrion off the edge of the cliff. As the giant fell, screaming, Zeus pointed his lightning bolt. An arc of pure white heat vaporized Porphyrion in midair. His ashes drifted down in a gentle cloud, dusting the tops of the olive trees on the slopes of the Acropolis. 

His friends stopped fighting as the monsters fell, successful in their endeavors. A smile graced their faces. Amidst the serenity, a BOOM shook the ground as three figures continued fighting. 

Ariadne panted while she ducked underneath Otis's legs. He made the surge to ship at her but almost ran into Ephialtes. The girl stabbed at the giant's leg and spilled ichor quickly, but she was knocked back. Her cheek stung as the blood dried slowly, her body rolling out of the way as Ephialtes stomped at where it once was. The ground seemed to pull her into the soil but with a quick wave it dissipated. Gaia wanted her to fail, and that wasn't happening.

The demigods watched in fear that she was alone. Just a demigod, but the gods gazed in uncertainty. Dionysus had refused to come, even as the plea that it was his own daughter, he scowled and left, leaving Ariadne on her own. Percy stepped forward to help but Poseidon's hand clamped on the boy's shoulder. Zeus stared at the scene and kept his hand raised for them to halt, squinting at the scene. Hera only smiled slyly.

Cygnus stopped Otis's spear from piercing her stomach, and the unsettling feeling knowing her own father didn't come to help made her angry. How dare he? After all that. After telling his children he cared, he was there for them, he leaves when needed most. The gods were useless, Ariadne decided for the final time. And she recalls telling Enceladus that the giants were only to fear her, not the Olympians. With the sudden surge, Ariadne clenched her fist, and vines surged through the ground. 

They swarmed the twins and they fought back, but Ariadne was quicker. Her sword knocked their spears far away and cut their hands off. They screamed at the pain and tried regrowing them, but the girl only glared. With one move, Cygnus stabbed through their necks side-by-side. Golden blood spilled from their mouths as their bodies dissolved to ash. 

The three Fates whispered to Zeus as he watched the demigod kill the twin giants, without a god. 

Ariadne's eyes filtered purple and the headache was back. Her face splattered with ichor, it horrified the others as she felt the urge to kill them all, until the girl blinked harshly and knocked herself out. A body collided with hers' and the scent of the sea and cookies filtered through. Her hands gripped Percy tightly. 

Olympians glanced at one another once her amethyst eyes opened, sending daggers into their skin. 

Fate had been broken. A demigod had almost reached godhood with her morality.

authors note:

This was extra long cause I wanted to keep the fight in the same chapter. We are almost reaching the end and I have so much planned. Hopefully you guys like the storyline I've set for Ariadne and how her powers have grown.

Q: What's been your favorite moment throughout the series as a whole?

A: Probably when she fought Misery. It was fun to write her losing her shit

Love you guys!