[Tessa Thompson as Nike]
SHE WAS VICTORY

"she never lost"

     THE PLAN HAD SLIGHTLY CHANGED. Although Frank and Hazel had split from the other three, Ariadne was meant to stay back and wait by herself, but after her outburst on the ship, Percy wasn't letting her out of his sight.

She seemed okay after the realization that she needed to protect the young girl inside her and Percy, slightly more focused, but that won't erase what happened in Tartarus.

Percy held her hand tightly. His fingers interlocked with hers, squeezing them every now and then to ensure she was still there. Ariadne had her free hand wrapped around his bicep for a more grounding affect. Leo didn't mind they were being coupley.

"Smart call back there," Percy said, "choosing the air-conditioning."

Them and Leo had just searched the museum. Now they were sitting on a bridge that spanned the Kladeos River, their feet dangling over the water as they waited for Frank and Hazel to finish scouting the ruins.

To their left, the Olympic valley shimmered in the afternoon heat. To their right, the visitors' lot was crammed with tour buses. Good thing the Argo II was moored a hundred feet in the air, because they never would've found parking.

Leo skipped a stone across the river. He wished Hazel and Frank would get back. He felt awkward hanging out with Percy, even if Ariadne was his friend.

For one thing, he wasn't sure what kind of small talk to make with Ariadne who'd recently come back from Tartarus. The girl had only entrusted Percy and Annabeth and Grover with what they had experienced, but he didn't expect the Poseidon boy to expand any further.

Percy had been intimidating enough before—summoning hurricanes, fueling pirates, killing giants in the Colosseum...

Now...well, after losing the love of his life to Tartarus, it seemed like Percy had graduated to a totally different level of butt-kickery. Ariadne was even more terrifying now that she had seemingly lost all control she once had over her bloodthirsty habits.

Leo had trouble even thinking of Percy as part of the same camp. The two of them had never been at Camp Half-Blood at the same time. Percy's leather necklace had four beads for four completed summers, Ariadne had twelve (sad in its own right). Leo's leather necklace had exactly none.

The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about that he wanted to punch Percy in the face. But he would most definitely break every bone in his body, and he would lose Ariadne's friendship, who became his older sister throughout their time together.

"What?" Percy asked.

Leo stirred. "What, what?"

"You were staring at me, like, angry."

"Was I?" Leo tried to muster a joke, or at least a smile but he couldn't. "Um, sorry."

Percy gazed at the river. "I suppose we need to talk." He opened his hand and the stone Leo had skipped flew out of the stream, right into Percy's palm.

Ariadne took the stone and tumbled it over in her hand. She stared at the cracks before launching it back into the water, Percy huffing while she smiled into his shoulder, and Leo almost cracked a smile at how married-like they were.

Leo considered shooting a column of fire at the nearest tour bus and blowing up the gas tank, but he decided that might be a tad dramatic. "Maybe we should talk. But not—"

"Guys!" Frank stood at the far end of the parking lot, waving at them to come over. Next to him, Hazel sat astride her horse Arion, who had appeared unannounced as soon as they'd landed.

Saved by the Zhang, Leo thought.

He, Percy, and Ariadne jogged over to meet their friends.

"This place is huge," Frank reported. "The ruins stretch from the river to the base of that mountain over there, about half a kilometer."

"How far is that in regular measurements," Ariadne asked. She crossed her arms and it seemed a normal stance she would take.

Frank rolled his eyes. "That is a regular measurement in Canada and the rest of the world. Only you Americans—"

"About five or six football fields," Hazel interceded, feeding Arion a big chunk of gold. As it seemed Frank was pushing his luck by an annoyed tone with Ariadne who had lost her impulse control many years ago.

Percy spread his hands. "That's all you needed to say."

"Anyway," Frank continued, "from overhead, I didn't see anything suspicious."

"Neither did I," Hazel said. "Arion took me on a complete loop around the perimeter. A lot of tourists, but no crazy goddess."

The big stallion snickered and tossed his head, his neck muscles rippling under his butterscotch coat.

"Man, your horse can cuss." Percy shook his head. "Almost as bad as Aidan. He doesn't think much of Olympia."

Ariadne smacked his side harshly while he laughed, but she threw the same arm across his shoulder.

"So we blunder around together," Leo said, "and let trouble find us. It's always worked before."

They poked around for a while, avoiding other tour groups and ducking from one patch of shade to the next. Ariadne finally visited Greece, but not for a vacation like she had wanted.

Frank found a tourist pamphlet and gave them a running commentary on what was what.

"This is the Propylon." He waved towards a stone path lined with crumbling columns. "One of the main gates into the Olympic valley."

"Rubble!" said Leo.

"And over there—" Frank pointed to a square foundation that looked like the patio for a Mexican restaurant— "is the Temple of Hera, one of the oldest structures here."

"Oh, I can easily make even more rubble from that," Ariadne said.

"And that round bandstand-looking thing—that's on the Philipeon, dedicated to Philip of Macedonia."

"Even more rubble! First-rate rubble!"

Hazel, who was still riding Arion, kicked Leo in the arm. "Doesn't anything impress you?"

Leo glanced up.

Frank continued his guided tour. "And over there...oh." He glanced at Ariadne and Percy. "Uh, that semicircular depression in the hill, with the niches...that's a nymphaeum, built in Roman times.

Their faces turned the color of limeade. "Here's an idea: let's not go there."

Leo had heard all about their near-death experience in the nymphaeum in Rome with Jason and Piper. "I love that idea."

They kept walking.

Once in a while, Ariadne would feel her head throb, her feet begin to sink, and she became scared—but Percy watched her expressions and knew to grab hold of her arm before she could descend into another spout of panic. That seemed to trigger her back into being normal, but it still reminded her of walking toward their doom in Tartarus.

"This is the Pelopion," Frank said, pointing to another fascinating pile of stones.

"Come on, Zhang," Leo said. "Pelopion isn't even a word. What was it—a sacred spot for plopping?"

Frank looked offended. "It's the burial site of Pelops. This whole part of Greece, the Peliponnese, was named after him."

Leo look miffed. "I suppose I should know who Pelops was?"

"He was a prince, won his wife in a chariot race. Supposedly he started the Olympic Games in honor of that."

Hazel sniffed. "How romantic. 'Nice wife you have, Prince Pelops.' 'Thanks. I won her in a chariot race.'"

Ariadne turned her head to Percy, the boy leaning down slightly for her to whisper, his hand maneuvering from her hand to her hip.

"I don't like this," she whispered. Her breath was shaky. "After Tar..."

She couldn't continue the name.

"After—that place, it feels like we just keep walking to danger. My body senses it and now it's just going haywire."

Percy pursed his lips. "Well, it's a good thing you can use a sword."

It was meant as a joke, but she gave an anxious smile at the thought of fighting for the first time since the Doors of Death and almost dying in the birthplace of monsters. She wasn't thrilled for the chance.

Her boyfriend's lips pressed against her temple, smiling into her hair when she sighed. Percy pressed another kiss to her forehead, her nose, behind her ear. Ariadne gave him a warning look of where they were. The boy shrugged and kissed her jaw as a lasting 'I love you' before pulling away.

They stopped at some wide steps leading to another ruined building—the Temple of Zeus, according to Frank.

"Used to be a huge gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus inside," Zhang said. "One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Made by the same dude who did the Athena Parthenos."

"Please tell me we don't have to find it," Percy said. "I've had enough of huge magic statues for one trip."

"Agreed." Hazel patted Arion's flank, as the stallion was acting skittish.

Unfortunately, Ariadne and Leo seemed to both come to a connection on Frank's words.

"Hey, Perc," Ariadne said, "remember that statue of Nike in the museum? The one that was all in pieces?"

"Yeah?"

"Didn't it used to stand here," Leo said, "at the Temple of Zeus. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong. I'd love to be wrong."

Percy's free hand went to his pocket. He slipped out his pen, Riptide. "You're right. So if Nike was anywhere...this would be a good spot."

Frank scanned their surroundings. "I don't see anything."

"What is we promoted, like, Adidas shoes?" Percy wondered. "Would that made Nike mad enough to show up."

Ariadne knew where this was going and knew that it was similar to their thinking at twelve on their first quest. "Yeah, I be that would totally be against her sponsorship deal. THOSE ARE NOT THE OFFICIAL SHOES OF THE OLYMPICS!"

Hazel rolled her eyes. "And you two saved Olympus?"

Before she could fire back, Ariadne's body tingles. Call it a sixth-sense, but Tartarus heightened her senses for anything dangerous to an eleven. And now, she knew why she felt like they were walking to their doom earlier. Her body moved before she could think and reflexively understand what she was doing.

Leo almost jumped out of his tool belt. He turned...and mentally kicked himself. They just had to invoke Adidas, the goddess of off-brand shoes.

Towering over them in a golden chariot, was the goddess Nike.

And there was Ariadne, her celestial-gold sword in hand for the first time in days, pointed and aimed at the goddess's heart.

The gold wings were overkill.

The chariot and two white horses she could understand. She was okay with Nike's glittering sleeveless dress and Nike's piled-up braids of dark hair circled with a gilded laurel wreath.

Her expression was wide eyed and a little crazy, like she'd just had twenty espressos and ridden a roller coaster, but that didn't bother Ariadne. She could even deal with the gold-tipped spear pointed at her neck.

But those wings—they were polished gold, right down to the last feather. They reminded her too much of Midas's gold house and his golden family. If her wings had been solar panels, Nike would've produced enough energy to power Miami.

"Lady," Leo said, "could you fold your flappers, please? You're giving us a sunburn."

"What?" Nike's head jerked towards him like a startled chicken's. "Oh...my brilliant plumage. Very well. I suppose you can't die in glory if you are blinded and burned."

She tucked in her wings. The temperature dropped to a normal hundred-and-twenty-degree summer afternoon.

Leo glanced at his friends. Frank stood very still, sizing up the goddess. His backpack hadn't morphed into a bow and quiver, which was probably prudent. He couldn't have been too freaked out, because he'd avoided turning into a giant goldfish.

Hazel was having trouble with Arion. The roan stallion nickered and bucked, avoiding eye contact with the white horses pulling Nike's chariot.

As for Percy, he held his magic ballpoint pen like he was trying to decide whether to bust out some sword moves or autograph Nike's chariot. He wanted to protect Ariadne and knew his girlfriend was more than capable, but, with recent events she was shaky.

Ariadne knew Piper and Annabeth were good at the whole talking thing. But she had to learn, and Tartarus was the lions den she was thrown in.

She decided somebody had better say something before they all died in glory.

"So!" Leo pointed his index fingers at Nike. "I didn't get the briefing, and I'm pretty sure the information wasn't covered in Frank's pamphlet. Could you tell me what's going on here?"

Nike's wide eyed stare unnerved him.

"We must have victory!" the goddess shrieked. "The contest must be decided! You have come here to determine the winner, yes?"

Frank cleared his throat. "Are you Nike or Victoria?"

"Arghhh!" The goddess clutched the side of her head. Her horses reared, causing Arion to do the same.

The goddess shuddered and split into two separate images, which reminded Ariadne of her own father and his split-personality issues. That's what Nike looked like.

On the left was the first version: glittery sleeveless dress, dark hair circled with laurels, golden wings folded behind her. On the right was a different version, dressed for war in a Roman breastplate and greaves. Short auburn hair peeled out from the rim of a tall helmet. Her wings were feathery white, her dress purple, and the shaft of her spear was fixed with a plate-sized Roman insignia—a golden SPQR in a laurel wreath.

"I am Nike!" cried the image on the left.

"I am Victoria!" cried the one on the right.

For the first time, Ariadne had seen someone literally saying two different things at once. She kept shuddering and splitting, making Ariadne dizzy.

"I am the decider of victory!" Nike screamed. "Once I stood here at the corner of Zeus's temple, venerated by all! I oversaw the games of Olympia. Offers from every city-state were piled at my feet!"

"Games are irrelevant!" yelled Victoria. "I am the goddess of success in battle! Roman generals worshipped me! Augustus himself erected my altar in the Senate House!"

"Ahhhh!" both voices screamed in agony. "We must decide! We must have victory!"

Arion bucked so violently that Hazel had to slide off his back to avoid getting thrown. Before she could calm him down, the horse disappeared, leaving a vapor trail through the ruins.

"Nike," Hazel said, stepping forward slowly, "you're confused, like all the gods. The Greeks and Romans are on the verge of war. It's causing your two aspects to clash."

"I know that!" The goddess shook her spear, but Ariadne pressed her sword closer to her neck. "I cannot abide unresolved conflict! Who is stronger? Who is the winner?"

"Lady, nobody's the winner," Leo said. "If that war happens, everybody loses."

"No winner?" Nike looked shocked. "There is always a winner! One winner. Everyone else is a loser! Otherwise victory is meaningless. I suppose you want me to give certificates to all the contestants? Little plastic trophies to every single athlete of soldier for participation? Should we all line up and shake hands and tell each other, Good game? No! Victory must be real. It must be earned. That means it must be rare and difficult, against steep odds, and defeat must be the other possibility."

The goddess's two horses nipped at each other, as if getting into the spirit.

"Uh...okay," Leo said. "I can tell you've got strong feelings about that. But the real war is against Gaia."

"He's right," Hazel said. "Nike, you were Zeus's charioteer in the last war with the giants, weren't you?"

"Of course!"

"Then you know Gaia is the real enemy. We need your help to defeat her. The war isn't between the Greeks and Romans."

Victoria roared. "The Greeks must perish!"

"Victory or death!" Nike wailed. "One side must prevail!"

Frank grunted. "I get enough of this from my dad screaming in my head."

Victoria glared down at him. "A child of Mars, are you? A praetor of Rome? No true Roman would apee the Greeks. I cannot abide to be split and confused—I cannot think straight! Kill them! Win!"

"Not happening," Frank said, though Ariadne noticed Zhang's right eye twitching.

"Look, Miss Victory..." Percy tried for a smile. He saw his girlfriend's slowly descending expression and knew it wouldn't be pretty soon. "We don't want to interrupt your crazy time. Maybe you can just finish this conversation with yourself and we'll come back later, with, um, some bigger weapons and possibly some sedatives."

The goddess brandished her spear. "You will determine the mater one and for all! Today, now, you will decide the victor! Five of you? Hmmm. We will have teams. Perhaps girls versus boys!"

"Lady, my arm is getting tired," Ariadne complained. "So, no."

"Shirts versus skins!"

Percy didn't mind that as long as Ariadne was on skins. Gods, he needed to focus.

Definitely no," said Hazel.

"Greeks versus Romans!" Nike cried. "Yes, of course! Two and two. The last demigod standing wins. The others will die gloriously." Her eyes shifted to the girl who held a sword to her throat. "Yes! Ariadne Phoenix will battle me after the victor is awarded. God versus demigod."

Her teeth gritted that she was another pawn in another stupid game.

Leo realized how right Annabeth had been not to send anyone who's parents had natural rivalries. If Jason were here, he and Percy would probably already be on the ground, bashing each other's brains out.

He forced his fists to unclench. "Look, lady, we're not going all Hunger Games on each other. Isn't going to happen."

"But you will win a fabulous honor!" Nike reached into a basket at her side and produced a wreath of thick green laurels. "This crown of leaves could be yours! You can wear it on your head! Think of the glory!"

"Leo's right," Frank said, though his eyes were fixed on the wreath. His expression was a little too greedy for Leo's taste. "We don't fight each other. We fight the giants. You should help us."

"Very well!" The goddess raised a laurel wreath in one hand and her spear in the other.

Ariadne and Percy exchanged looks.

"Uh...does that mean you'll join us?" Percy asked. "You'll help us fight the giants?"

"That will be part of the prize," Nike said. "Whoever wins, I will consider an ally. We will fight the giants together, and I will bestow victory upon you. But there can only be one winner. The others must be defeated, killed, destroyed utterly. So what will it be, demigods? Will you succeed in your quest, or will you cling to your namby-pamby ideas of friendship and everybody wins participation awards?"

Percy uncapped his pen. Riptide grew into a Celestial bronze sword. Leo was worried he might turn it on them. Nike's aura was that hard to resist.

Instead, Percy took a step next to his girlfriend and pointed his blade next to her golden one at Nike. "What if we fight you instead?"

"Ha!" Nike's eyes gleamed. "If you refuse to fight each other, you shall be persuaded!"

Nike spread her golden wings. Four metal feathers fluttered down, two on either side of the chariot. The feathers twirled like gymnasts, growing larger, sprouting arms and legs, until they touched the ground as four metallic, human-sized replicas of the goddess, each armed with a golden spear and a Celestial bronze laurel wreath that looked suspiciously like a barbed-wire Frisbee.

"To the stadium!" The goddess cried. "You have five minutes to prepare. Then blood shall be spilled!"

Ariadne wanted to stab the goddess then and there, but after she bellowed at them, and the metal ladies unhinged their jaws and blasted out a sound like a Super Bowl crowd mused with feedback and charged the demigods, Percy pulled his girlfriend along with their friends.

The four metal women swept behind them in a loose semicircle, herding them to the northeast. All the tourists had vanished. Perhaps they'd fled to the air-conditioned comfort of the museum, or maybe Nike had somehow forced them to leave.

The demigods ran, tripping over stones, leaping over crumbled walls, dodging around columns and informational placards. Behind them, Nike's chariot wheels rumbled and her horses whinnied.

"There!" Frank sprinted toward a kind of trench between two earthen walls with a stone archway above. "That's the entrance to the old Olympic stadium. It's called the crypt!"

"Not a good name!" Leo yelled.

"Why are we going there?" Percy gasped. "If that's where she wants us—"

The Niketyes screamed again and all rational thought abandoned Leo. He ran for the tunnel.

When they reached the arch, Hazel yelled, "Hold it!"

They stumbled to a stop. Ariadne doubled over, wheezing. They all noticed that Ariadne seemed to get more winded easily those days—probably because of that nasty acid air she'd been forced to breath in Tartarus and her chest almost turning to complete stone. Percy placed his hand on her back and rubbed soothing circles but she jerked away from his touch, seemingly frightened before pacing her heartbeat back to normal. Leo, Frank, and Hazel tried not to notice the dejected look that crossed Percy's face for a split-second.

Frank peered back the way they'd came. "I don't see them anymore. They disappeared."

"Did they give up?" Percy asked hopefully.

Leo scanned the ruins. "Nah. They herded us where they wanted us. What were those things, anyways? The Nikettes, I mean."

"Nikettes?" Frank scratched his head. "I think it was Nikki, plural, like victories."

"Yes." Hazel looked deep in though, running her hands along the stone archway. "In some legends, Nike had an army of little victories she could send all over the world to do her bidding."

"Like Santa's elves," Percy said. "Except evil. And metal. And really loud."

Hazel pressed her fingers against the arch, as if taking its pulse. Beyond the narrow tunnel, the earthen walls opened into a long friend with gently rising slopes on either side, like seating for spectators.

"Ghosts linger in this place," Hazel murmured. "A lot of pain is embedded in these stones."

"Please tell me you have a plan," Leo said. "Preferably one that doesn't involve embedding my pain in the stones."

Hazel's eyes were stormy and distant, the way they'd been in the House of Hades—like she was peering into a different layer of reality. "This was the players' entrance. Nike said we have five minutes to prepare. Then she'll expect us to pass under this archway and begin the games. We won't be allowed to leave that field until four of us are dead."

Percy leaned on his sword. "I'm pretty sure death matches weren't an Olympic sport."

"We'll, they are today," Hazel warned. "But I might be able to give us an edge. When we pass through, I could raise some obstacles on the field—hiding places to buy us some time."

Frank frowned. "You mean like on the Field of Mars—trenches, tunnels, that kind of thing? You can do that with the Mist?"

"I think so," Hazel said. "Nike would probably like to see an obstacle course. I can play her expectations against her. But it would be more than that. I can use any subterranean gateway—even this arch—to access the Labyrinth. I can raise part of the Labyrinth to the surface."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Ariadne made a time-out sign. "I though we discussed that the Labyrinth is bad."

"Hazel, she's right," Leo said. "I mean, I know you're good with magic. But we've already got four screaming Nikettes to worry about—"

"You'll have to trust me," she said. "We've only got a couple of minutes now. When we pass through the arch, I can at least manipulate the playing field to our advantage."

Percy exhaled through his nose. "Twice now, we've been forced to fight in stadiums—once in Rome, and before that in the Labyrinth. I hate playing games for people's amusement."

Ariadne thought back to Antaeus. Her skin rippled beneath her shirt, heart racing quickly as she formed a cold sweat across her brow. The scar left from the arai in Tartarus began to sting and she felt Cygnus shake in hand, but she stumbled to Percy's side and he immediately gripped her back, grabbing her hand and placing it onto his chest where she could feel his breathing.

The girl took a deep breath, forcing her eyes shut while she fought down the bile in her throat and the acid she could smell of Akhlys. She needed to focus.

"We all do," Hazel said, speaking softly as to not disturb the couple. "But we have to put Nike off guard. We'll pretend to fight until we can neutralize those Nikettes—ugh, that's an awful name. Then we subdue Nike, like Juno said."

"Makes sense," Frank agreed. "You felt how powerful Nike was, trying to put us at each other's throats. If she's sending out those vibes to all the Greeks and Romans, there's no way we'll be able to prevent a war. We've got to get her under control."

"And how do we do that?" Percy asked. "Bonk her on the head and stuff her in a sack?"

Leo's mental gears started to turn.

"Actually," he said, "you're not far off. Uncle Leo brought some toys for all you good little demigods."

Two minutes was nearly enough time.

Leo hoped he'd given everybody the right gadgets and adequately explained what all the buttons did. Otherwise things would get ugly.

While he was lecturing Frank, Ariadne, and Percy on Archimedean mechanics, Hazel stared at the stone archway and muttered under her breath.

Nothing seemed to change in the big grassy field beyond, but Ariadne was sure Hazel was doing something.

Ariadne turned to her boyfriend as he stared at his converse. They were the ones she had grabbed from his room at his mom's place. The soles were covered in marker from her writings and his chicken scratch barely allowed visibility, aside from the capital letters spelling out: IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO ARIADNE. He had written it as a joke, but she copied on her own, the very ones she was also wearing.

The girl had remembered her sudden rejection of his touch when she had wheezed running from Nike and her metal ladies. Ariadne hadn't meant to, but the sudden hand on her back sent her reeling like it was Tartarus on her skin. Percy was no primordial monster, he'a the love of her life, but she couldn't stop herself from moving—that had been happening a lot more lately.

"Hey," Ariadne whispered to him.

Percy glanced up, fiddling with his sword. His sea green eyes looked shyly at his girlfriend, and he was reminded of her stare from when they were twelve, and she had just told him about her mom.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have disregarded you earlier, you were just helping me."

He shook his head. "It's fine. I shouldn't have scared you—"

"No. You have nothing to apologize for," the girl cut him off. Her scarred hands took his cheeks and brought her forehead to his. "You've been nothing but patient and kind. I'm not there anymore. and while it'll take me time to get used to, I can't forget that you've been here for me."

Percy kissed the palm of her hand, gripping her wrist with his free one.

"I'll be okay as long as I have you," Ariadne said. She smiled genuinely—the first one in a long time.

He nodded. "I love you, Curly Fry," he said softly.

"I love you, Kelp Head," she told him.

The sound of trumpets echoed through the stadium. Mike's chariot appeared on the field, the Nikettes arrayed in front of her with their spears and laurels raised.

"Begin!" the goddess bellowed.

Percy and Leo sprinted through the archway. Immediately, the field shimmered and became maze of brick walls and trenches. They ducked behind the nearest wall and ran to the left. Back at the archway, Frank yelled, "uh, die, Graecus scum!" A poorly aimed arrow sailed over Leo's head.

"More vicious!" Nike yelled. "Kill like you mean it!"

Ariadne gave the goddess a sour look from across the stadium, leaning against the original archway after her friends separated. Nike surely would've sent Nikettes after her if she had participated, as that wasn't the game.

"Die, Romans!" Percy yelled and lobbed a grenade over the wall.

BOOM!

The explosion lit the sky a blinding yellow as the smell of buttery popcorn filled the air. It made her hungry.

"Oh, no!" Hazel wailed. "Popcorn! Our fatal weakness!"

Ariadne was almost convinced Hazel had taken a course on bad acting. Hey!—she could say that as the daughter of the gif of theatre, even if she herself was terrible.

Frank shot another arrow over their heads. Ariadne lost sight of Leo and Percy as they scrambled left of their initial position. Her hand went to her ring and twisted quickly, she was ready for what was to come.

Somewhere across the stadium, Nike yelled, "Try harder! That popcorn was not fatal!"

From the rumble of her chariot wheels, Ariadne noticed her circling the perimeter of the field—Victory taking a victory lap. The girl readied herself as more grenades sailed through the air and Greek fire released.

"Better," Nike called out, closer to Ariadne now, "but where is your at? Don't you want this circlet of leaves?"

She almost bet that Percy was saying something of drowning her.

As she neared, the walls shifted, revealing one of the Nikettes about thirty yards away, standing with her back to them. Hazel must be doing her thing—manipulating the maze to isolate their targets.

The Nikettes turned to Leo as he threw a ball-peen hammer from his tool belt. His hammer clanged harmlessly off the metal lady's chest, but she must have been annoyed. She marched towards him, raised her barbed-wire laurel wresth.

Leo ducked as the metal circlet spun over his head. The wreath hit the wall behind him, punching a hole straight through the bricks, then arced backwards through the air like a boomerang. As the Nikette raised her hand to catch it, Percy emerged from the trench behind her and slashed with Riptide, cutting the Nikette in half at the waist. The metal wreath shot past him and embedded in a marble column.

"Foul!" the victory goddess cried. The walls shifted and Ariadne saw her barreling towards them in her chariot. "You don't attack the Nokia unless you wish to die!"

Ariadne appeared in the goddess's path, causing her horses to balk. Leo and Percy ran for cover, but the son of Poseidon called out his love for his girlfriend midway before disappearing.

"Come on, Victory," Ariadne teased, "I've waited long enough. I miss kicking your godly asses."

"No!" Nike screamed in outrage. "No, no, no! Your lives are forfeit! Nikki, attack!"

Cygnus knocked against the goddess's spear before a slashing through, creating an arc of air at her neck. Ariadne sent a palm correare and thorn-covered vines wrapped around the wheels of Nike's chariot. The axles crumbled beneath the vegetation, and the horses neighed in apprehension as the goddess dismounted to fight the demigod properly.

The fight was happening so quickly, that to anyone outside, they were moving at a quick enough speed to rival Hermes. Ariadne didn't know what was happening around her anymore as she focused on breaking spear after spear and slowing Nike down—which was working, luckily.

She finally heard Leo.

"Hey!" Leo yelled. "I want a participation award!"

"Gah!" The goddess multitasked as Ariadne kicked her breastplate and sent her backwards. "I will destroy you!"

"Good!" Ariadne cried. "Losing is way better than winning

"WHAT?" Mike threw her might spear, but her aim was off and it almost hit Leo, but a vine knocked it away. Sadly, a new one appeared in her hands.

The trenches disappeared, leaving an open field.

"Hey!" Frank yelled from across the stadium. "I want a participation award, too! Everybody wins!"

He shot a well-aimed arrow that landed in the back Nike's chariot and began to burn. Nike ignored it. Her eyes were fixed on Ariadne and Leo.

"Percy...?" Leo's voice squeaked like a hamster's. Ariadne gave him a side eye. From his tool belt, he fished out an Archimedes so where and set the concentric circles to arm the device.

Percy was still sparring with the last metal lady. Leo couldn't wait. He improvised and adjusted a few settings.

He threw the sphere in Nike's path. It hit the ground and burrowed in, but he needed Ariadne to spring the trap. If Nike senses any threat, she apparently didn't think much of it. She kept charging at the two.

She was twenty feet from the grenade. Fifteen feet.

"Firebird!" Leo yelled.

Ariadne was busy stopping the goddess from moving any further. She felt heat on her back from his fire but didn't dare look in where it was headed, slicing at Nike who hissed as Ichor fell from her veins. The girl didn't stop and continued to slash and carve the goddess up. She was ruthless, and even as the fighting died down and her friends stopped to catch their breaths, she was still going.

Percy had never seen her this way. Even after their years together, fighting side by side, even against Kronos, Ariadne was much more vicious with her attacks. His girlfriend was fighting as if she was going to kill the immortal woman and bury in her blood. Maybe she was. He held Hazel and watched as Ariadne screamed bloody-murder, taking Cygnus and cutting Nike's hand clean off through the bone.

Bike wailed in anger and misery. But, granted, from what Ariadne had told Percy, she had bested misery in her own domain, her own home.

The daughter of Dionysus triggered the Archimedes sphere at the goddess's feet.

FOOM! Metal filaments shot upward, wrapping Nike in a bronze net. She wailed, falling sideways as the net constricted, forcing her two forms—Greek and Roman—into a quivering, out-of-focus whole.

"Trickery!" Her doubled voices buzzed like muffled alarm clocks. "You did not even kill me!"

"Want me to?" Ariadne questioned. She kneeled down to Nike's level and spit on her face, knee pressing into the her wounds as she bowled some more. A sadistic smile crawled along her face. "I seemed to have vanquished you just fine.

"I will simply change form!" she cried. "I will rip apart your silly net! I will destroy you!"

"Yeah, see, you can't." Leo hoped he was right from behind Ariadne. "That's high-quality Celestial bronze netting, and I'm a son of Hephaestus. He's kind of an expert on catching goddess in nets."

"No. Nooooo!"

Ariadne left her thrashing and cursing, and went to check on her friends. Frank had propped Hazel up and was feeding her ambrosia. The cut on her leg had stopped bleeding, though her jeans were pretty much ruined.

Percy ran his hands over Ariadne's face as she sighed in exhaustion. The girl smiled at him as she normally would, and he smiled back, though he tried not to look at the golden blood staining her legs.

What had Tartarus done to her?

"I'm okay," Hazel said. "Just too much magic."

"You were awesome, Levesque." Leo did his best Hazel imitation: "Popcorn! Our fatal weakness!"

She smiled wanly. Together the five of them walked over to Nike, who was still weighing and flapping her wings in the net like a golden chicken. Her hand seemed to already be growing back ever so slowly. Ariadne held Percy's and tucked herself into his side, like she hadn't just brought down the goddess of victory all on her own.

"What do we do with her?" Percy asked.

"Take her aboard the Argo II," Leo said. "Chuck her in one of the horse stalls."

Ariadne kissed her teeth. "Aw, man. I liked that place."

Percy laughed at her pout and kissed it away. She smiled again in good spirits.

Hazel's eyes widened. "You're going to keep the goddess of victory in the stable?"

"Why not? Once we sort things out between Greeks and Romans, the gods should go back to their normal selves. Then we can free her and she can...you know...grant us victory."

"Grant you victory?" the goddess cried. "Never! You will suffer for this outrage! Your blood shall be spilled! One of you here—one of you five—is fated to die battling Gaia! One other will have a date worse than death!"

Ariadne's intestines tied themselves into slipknots. "How do you know that?"

"I can foresee victories!" Nike yelled. "You will have no success without death! Release me and fight each other! It is better you die here than face what is to come!"

Hazel stuck the point of her spatha under Nike's chin. "Explain." Her voice was hard. "Which of us is it? How do we stop it?"

"Ah, child of Pluto!" Your magic helped chest in this contest, but you cannot chest destiny. One of you will die. One of you must succumb to fate!"

"No," Hazel insisted. "There's another way. There is always another path."

"Hecate taught you this?" Nike laughed. "You would hope for the physician's cure, perhaps? But that is impossible. Too much stands in your way: the poison of Pylos, the chained god's heartbeat in Sparta, the curse of Delos! No, you cannot cheat death."

Frank knelt. He gathered up the net under Nike's chin and raised her face to his. "What are you talking about? How do we find this cure?"

"I will not help you," Nike growled. "I will curse you with my power, net or no!"

She began to go mutter in Ancient Greek.

Frank looked up, scowling. "Can she really cast magic through this net?"

"Heck if I know," Leo said.

Frank let go of the goddess. He took off one of his shoes, peeled off his sock and stuffed it in the goddess's mouth.

"Dude," Percy said, "that is disgusting."

"Mpppphhh!" Nike complained. "Mpppphhh!"

"Leo," Frank said grimly, "you got duct tape?"

"Never leave home without it." He fished a roll from his tool belt, and in no time Frank had wrapped it around Nike's head, securing the gag in her mouth.

"Well, it's not a laurel wreath," Frank said, "but it's a new kind of victory circle: the gag of duct tape."

"It's something we would've done years ago," Ariadne said, nudging Percy.

Nike thrashed and grunted until Percy hit her with his foot. "Hey, shut up. You behave or I'll get Arion back here and let him nibble your wings. He loves gold."

"Nike shrieked once, then became still and quiet.

"So..." Hazel sounded a little nervous. "We have one tied-up goddess. Now what?"

Frank folded his arms. "We go looking for this physician's cure...whatever that is. Because, personally, I like cheating death."

Leo grinned. "Poison in Pylos? A chained god's heartbeat in Sparta? A curse in Delos? Oh, yeah. This is gonna be fun!"

Ariadne laughed. And for the first time, the ground stilled, and the gods watched as the earth curled at her feet.

authors note:

This is months late, I'm sorry.

I lost motivation for a bit but with the series coming up I'm back in my mojo!

I started college! I'm officially a college freshman. And the crazy part is, I was about to start my freshman year of high school when I began writing Ariadne's journey, crazy how time is!

Thank you guys! I know I've probably lost tons of viewers and readers, and I'm sorry, but thank you if you do read this!

Q: What album of Taylor Swift is Percaidan?
A: In my heart and soul, I know it is Speak now with sprinkles of folklore and Midnights

Love you guys! Let me know what you liked about this chapter, what you're excited for, and what you think is going to happen! I love your theories!